Y7 Literacy & Numeracy Catch Up Premium

This funding from the Government has now been discontinued, with last payments being for the 2019 to 2020 academic year.

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Year 7 Catch-Up Funding Spend 2019-20

As a school, we received £27,500 for Year 7 catch up premium for this academic year which was spent on the employment of two specialist SEN HLTAs to deliver the literacy and numeracy programmes, including additional lessons to the students requiring additional support. This approach mirrored last year’s which delivered significant impact in both literacy and numeracy levels. A lack of age appropriate literacy and numeracy skills form a substantial barrier against learning for some students and has a significant impact upon their ability to achieve their academic potential.  For this reason, staff at Temple Moor High School work hard with the staff at feeder primary schools to identify students whose literacy and numeracy skills fall below expected levels. We use primary school data in conjunction with SATS results and reading, spelling and access to reading tests carried out at Temple Moor, to identify this cohort of students. Students who are identified as experiencing difficulties in these areas are placed in an intensive literacy programme and additional maths lessons during Year 7.

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Target Setting

Students on literacy and numeracy intervention programmes are expected to double their rate of progress as compared with that made during the previous six years at primary school. Target reading and spelling ages are set at the beginning of the school year by working out the student’s average annual progress made over the previous six years at primary school.  Reading and spelling age targets are subsequently set on the basis of doubling that rate of progress over Year 7.  For example, if a student has previously averaged six months per year progress in reading, we expect that student to make 12 months’ progress over the same time period. These are very aspirational targets for students who have previously struggled with developing literacy skills, but the vast majority of our students achieve or exceed them, as the data below indicates.

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Fresh Start

Temple Moor utilises the Ruth Miskin Fresh Start Literacy Programme to support students in developing their reading, spelling and writing skills. Fresh Start is delivered to small groups by a Higher Level Teaching Assistant for four hours each week. For the academic year 2018-19, 33 students were placed on the Fresh Start Programme. 64% of these students were disadvantaged. Each academic year we test students to monitor progress and move students out of the programme if they meet the

The 2018-19 results were:

Year 7 Foundation

Reading: 73% of students improved their reading age

Spelling: 60% of students improved their spelling age

Access to reading (comprehension) 73% improved their reading comprehension age.  This strand recorded the most significant improvement.

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Year 7 Fresh Start

Reading: 87% of students improved their reading age

Spelling: 75% of students improved their spelling age

Access to reading: 62.5% of students improved their reading comprehension age, again with the most significant improvements in this area

As several of these students are diagnosed with dyslexia or dyslexic traits, developing spelling accuracy tends to be more challenging because being able to identify the correct spelling choice can be extremely difficult. Hence, spelling targets are particularly aspirational. This group of students will continue to be offered additional literacy intervention in the next school year if there is still an identified need. This is particularly important as this cohort includes disadvantaged and Child Looked After students, for whom the acquisition of literacy skills is a major school priority.

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Numeracy Intervention

This school year we offered additional maths lessons outside of the core provision.  These lessons were used to provide students with extra support in basic mathematical skills, such as telling the time and times tables, in order to give them a secure foundation for future progress.  These additional sessions were delivered by our HLTAs who have expertise in teaching these core skills. We did not use maths ages to measure progress, but instead we regularly assessed student skills at regular points.  Gaps in mathematical knowledge were highlighted by teaching staff, and these fed into the planning and delivery of the supporting maths curriculum.

Y7 Literacy & Numeracy Catch Up Premium 2019-20

Please click here to read about how the funding allocation for 2019-20 is being spent.