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What is the Catch up Premium?
The Government has announced that they will be investing £1billion into a programme called Catch up Premium. The programme is intended to provide financial support to disadvantaged schools, allowing them to provide the education missed during school closures.
There is a substantial gap in academic achievement between pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers. This gap is highly likely to have grown during school closures and the Government have allocated this money to help reduce it.
The funding
The funding is:
- A one-off universal payment of £650 million for the Catch up Premium, supposedly in the 2020/21 academic year. This is to ensure that schools have all the support they need to help all students.
- A £350 million National Tutoring Programme (NTP) to assist and support those children and young people who need the most help. This includes:
- An oral language intervention for reception aged children.
- A 16 to 19 tuition fund – this is £96 million of one-off funding for the 2020/21 academic year for schools, colleges and other providers, to relieve the disruption to education from the coronavirus (COVID-19)
Who is going to get the Catch up Premium?
The Catch up Premium is designed to reach and support disadvantaged students and schools. State-maintained primary and secondary schools in England will be able to access the support provided and use them as best fits the needs of each student.
Parents will not be able to access the service as evidence suggests that students are more likely to succeed if they are in school learning. Private schools are also not eligible for the NTP for their students as the aim is to support the most disadvantaged.
Eligibility
Your school will be eligible for the Catch up Premium if it is a:
- Primary, secondary and all through local authority-maintained schools, academies, and free schools
- Local authority-maintained special schools
- Special academies and free schools
- Special schools not maintained by local authorities
- Pupil referral units
- Alternative provision (known as AP) academies and free schools
- Authority-maintained hospital schools and academies.
- Independent special schools.
The Government will also provide further funding to local authority pupils with education, heal and care (otherwise known as EHC) plans who are educated in independent special schools based on the number of students in that area.
The National Tutoring Plan within the Catch Up Premium.
The goal of the NTP is to provide fast acting support to disadvantaged students through tutoring or mentoring. Tutors are picked out and funded by the government.
NTP tutors will be helping online, reaching out to as many students as possible – this is a great advantage, especially for schools which must isolate and remain closed due to the coronavirus. NTP mentors will provide physical support within schools that are the most disadvantaged.
The NTP will be stretched over the academic years of 2020/21 and 2021/22 – as recently announced by the Department of Education. You can find more information here.
Funding Breakdow.
Funding allocations will be calculated on a per pupil basis. Mainstream school will get £80 per student from reception to year 11. Whereas special, AP and hospital schools will get £240 per student for the 2020/21 academic year.
The government has also taken into consideration the weighting to specialist settings, therefore schools with a specialist setting will receive a higher per pupil pay-out than those who do not. A typical primary school of 200 pupils will receive £16,000 while a typical secondary school of 1,000 pupils will receive £80,000.
Payments are split into parts:
- Autumn 2020 – The payment is based on the latest data on pupils in mainstream and special schools, AP, and hospital schools. This data is available here.
- Beginning of 2021 – this is also based on an updated pupil and place data. The payment will also consider the first part of the payment made in autumn 2020. That means that schools will receive a total of £46.67 per student or £140 per place across the first two payment rounds.
- Summer 2021 term – an extra £33.33 per student will be received or £100 per place.
For mainstream schools, the funding allocations are calculated by using a 4 to 15 pupil headcount from October 2020 census. However, for AP, special and hospital schools the government will use:
- 2019/20 academic year place numbers to aid the calculation of funding provided in the 2020/21 academic year.
Schools will have to pay to use the NTP program, however 75% of the cost is subsidised by the government. This allows the school to purchase tutoring for four students for the price of one. For example, 15 slots of tutoring for a single student is £200, the cost for schools would be reduced to £50 per student.
The Government advises to treat this funding as a singular payment instead of a per pupil bases as some students might require more or less than others. It is up to the school to decide how this funding is allocated in regard to the NTP program and the need of their students.
Emile provides a great intervention for core subjects, making it fun and interactive for the student to catch up on missed out work. With Emile, teachers and tutors will be able to track and assist students with their learning. For your free trial of Emile click here.
For more information on catch up premium, please visit the GOV website.
