Covid Catch Up Funding

The government announced an additional £650 million of funding to support students to catch up following the disruption to schooling caused by the pandemic, to help students make up for lost teaching time. School allocations were calculated on a per pupil basis and The Swanage School received an additional £26,400 for the 2020/21 academic year to support our students. 

Schools have flexibility to spend their funding in the way they believe will best support their students and circumstances. 

Key approaches

Our key approaches to support students catch up their learning include:

Support for pupils: 

  • Raising the attainment of pupils by closing any gaps in knowledge and skills that are identified and may have arisen as a result of the school closures.
  • Supporting disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils by intervention support.
  • Supporting mental health and wellbeing during lockdown and as students returned to 'normal' school life.
  • Monitoring of attendance and following-up any attendance issues to ensure students maximise their chances to catch up.
  • Adapting the curriculum and revising schemes of work to fix gaps where identified and to ensure coverage of appropriate content and skills.
  • Provision of revision resources, guides and workbooks to support students catch up with missed learning.

Technology & website

  • Investment in technology to support remote teaching and learning, namely an integration between our management information system Arbor and Microsoft Teams / Sharepoint, and training staff to competently and confidently use these systems and resources.
  • Ensuring that all students are able to access remote learning during school closures and any periods of self-isolation, including provision of any additional electronic devices over and above those provided by government, and investment in new software that allow students to join the class from home.
  • Use of Chromebooks for blended learning in classrooms, remote access and to reduce disadvantage for students previously without their own device, provide free of charge (through capital funding) to all incoming Year 7 students from 2021.

Teacher training

  • Continuing professional development for teachers and sharing of best practice for remote teaching and learning, and for blended learning when back in the classroom.

Funding use

We will use the additional funding as so:

  • £10,600 to fund additional support from Higher Level Teaching Assistants for small group work and interventions, including extra support in English and mathematics.
  • £9,800 to support technology to enable remote learning to take place including technology to support staff and students with remote learning and increased technical support. This will include purchase of Cloud Design Box to facilitate integration of Arbor and Teams/SharePoint to create an online communication and work system between students and staff and establish a student-facing resource hub. GCSE Pod software for pupil revision will also be purchased, which includes online resources and videos, as will Manga High software, a maths online learning resource.
  • £3,000 for diagnostic testing and continuous formative assessment to establish baselines and measure progress.
  • £3,000 to support student wellbeing, for example through use of a ‘Walk & Talk’ scheme to boost self-esteem and confidence for learning.