In June 2020 the government announced additional funding to support children and young people in catching up on learning lost as a result of Covid 19. All mainstream Primary schools were allocated £80 per pupil for 2020-21, meaning that we received an additional £10,560. Schools could decide how they used the money, but were encouraged to focus on disadvantaged and vulnerable children, as they had been most severely affected by school closures.

   We used a combination of teacher assessment and standardised tests to identify children who were at risk and would need additional support to reach age-related expectations by the end of the year.

   The aim of the Catch-up Premium strategy is to close gaps and ensure that as many children as possible are reaching or exceeding age-related expectations. The strategies used were based on research recommendations from the EEF Covid Recovery guidance for schools.

• Speaking and listening skills in Reception  
• Phonics in Year 1 
• Developing maths vocabulary and fluency in EYFS and Key Stage 1 
• Reading across all year groups 
• Securing mathematical understanding for less confident children in Key Stage 2 
• Fluency in Arithmetic in key Stage 2 
• Rebuilding writing stamina and accuracy across all year groups. This will be addressed through quality-first teaching, as there is limited evidence for successful writing interventions.