Catch Up Premium (CUP Premium) The literacy and numeracy catch-up premium gives schools additional funding to support year 7 pupils who did not achieve at least level 4 in reading and/or maths at the end of key stage 2 (KS2). In 2013-14, Manchester Communication Academy received an additional fund of £34,500 to support students in Year 7 to develop in these key areas and ‘catch up’ with their peers. When deemed appropriate, this may also continue into Year 8 and even Year 9. Funding for the 2014-15 will be known in March 2015. Objectives of Year 7 Catch Up Funding •
To narrow the gap by providing intensive literacy and numeracy support and raise the attainment of those students entitled to Catch Up Premium (CUP Premium)
•
To enhance existing provision
•
To identify intervention groups and accelerate student progress
•
To raise self-esteem and aspirations of students entitled to Catch Up Premium
Target Outcome: •
At the end of Year 7, the percentage of CUP students making expected progress in English and Maths will be the same or greater than their non-CUP peers (CUP students have typically made less progress by the EKS3)
•
Reading Ages of CUP students will increase at an accelerated rate to their starting points and enable students to access the curriculum
•
Students will confidently use numeracy and literacy across the curriculum
How we spent the allocation of funds during 2013-14: The strategies employed during the last academic year included: Staffing support to enable •
Small group teaching/ one to one support
•
Mentoring
•
Literacy intervention programme
•
Accelerated Reader Programme
•
TA Support including full time EAL TA
•
Extra Study Support After School Club
•
Summer School
•
Booster Sessions
•
External Professional Assessment such as Speech and Language therapists and Educational Psychologist reports
•
Reading inference programme Training for staff
•
Intervention during Year 6 for vulnerable students through transition
Purchase of
•
Digital visualizers for English and Maths classrooms to aid visual learners.
•
Classroom resources and targeted ICT resources
•
Dictionaries, class sets of volume and shape resources.
•
Rapid Plus Reading scheme/ Lexia Reading scheme
•
Various targeted resources
What was the impact of the funding?
English
Maths
%age (number)
%age (number)
Level 3 or less (Start of Year 7)
30% (63)
23% (47)
Level 3 or less (end of Year 7)
14% (29)
11% (23)
Students achieving Level 4 from targeted cohort
54% (34)
51% (24)
% of Level 3< making expected
83% (52)
77% (36)
80% (165)
67% (138)
+ 6%
+ 12%
progress or better % of whole year group (207 students) making expected progress or better Difference in expected progress for CUP students v non- Cup students
Nb. Assessed through teacher assessment of levels Summary: In both Reading and Maths, the percentage of students not attaining a Level 4 was reduced by over 50%. Students eligible for funding made, on average, more progress than the average of the Year group all together. (Attainment was measured through teacher assessment of their levels). Literacy Catch Up Strategy: On entering the Academy, all students are tested and students below level 3 are identified. Level 3 students are then assessed, through standardised tests, on their spelling, reading skill and reading comprehension skills. From this stage, the following processes take place:
Intensive Literacy Case Studies Student A is now in year 9 and has been working with specialist literacy/ trained dyslexia staff since she was in year 7 after displaying low levels of spelling and reading. At the beginning of the year students Aâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spelling age was 8 years 8 months. After just 1 term of extra 1 to 1 intervention, Student A improved her spelling age by 2 years and now has a spelling age of 10 years 8 months. The intervention enables her to access the curriculum and receive a broad and balanced curriculum. Student B is in year 8 and has been working with a specialist teacher since the beginning of the year. Student B is dyslexic and has been working in a group of 3 students to help progress her spelling, improved her spelling age by 7 months. She began the year with a spelling age of 7 years 9 months and after 1 term has reached a spelling age of 8 years 4 months. Rapid Plus Intervention Case Studies Rapid Plus is a reading programme for students with a reading age of 6.6 years to 9.6 years. This programme helps students make at least two levels of progress. The programme also improves students spelling and comprehension ability. Student C is in Year 9, he has SPLD (specific learning difficulty). As a result, the student has a low reading age of 7.9 years. This also impacts on inference skills. This student has worked on Rapid Plus reading intervention for six months, and now has a reading age of 9.4 years now. This programme also monitors the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comprehension skills, and allows them to progress towards a reading age more commensurate with his chronological age, closing the gap. How we plan to spend the current academic yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s allocation: Allocations will be based on the January 2015 census and calculated in February 2015 with payments made to academies in March 2015.
A similar programme is currently in operation in lieu of this payment and also includes new interventions such as a ‘Reading to Infer’ programme, ‘Grow @ KS3’ and the introduction of Mental Maths software In addition to this, we have appointed 2 Teaching Assistants to support students eligible for the catch up premium. The focus of their work is to: a) Increase Reading age/ Reading level relative to starting points b) Support these students across the curriculum in Literacy
Intensive Literacy Case Studies- 2014/2015 Student D is a year 7 EAL student and participated in an intensive literacy programme at the beginning of the year for 6 weeks. She began the course with a reading age of 7 years 3 months and a spelling age of 8 years 4 months. At the end of the course Student D had a reading age of 8 years 9 months and a spelling age of 10 years allowing her to access the curriculum much more readily. Student E is in year 7 and participated in an intensive literacy programme at the beginning of the year for 6 weeks and is currently working in a small group for his English lessons. During this time student E has improved his reading age by 15 months. He began the year with a reading age of 7 years 9 months and is currently working with a reading age of 9 years. Rapid Plus Intervention Case Studies- 2014/2015 Student F is a Year 7 student who was tested at a reading age of 6.6 years; having a history of low level literacy, he is currently waiting for a Dyslexia screening. After two months on the programme, his reading age increased to 9.7 years. This had a noticeable impact on his confidence; he was able to engage with the mainstream curriculum, working more independently in lessons. Sample data: cohort of students in Rapid Plus intervention
Start Reading Age (Sept 14)
Reading Age - w/c 15/12/14
Progress Made
7.06
11.03
+ 3 years, 9 months
7.08
11.07
+ 3 years, 11 months
C
8
9.04
+ 1 year, 4 months
D
7.03
8.07
+ 1 year, 4 months
E
7.01
10.08
+ 3 years, 7 months
F
7.08
8.11
+ 1 year, 3 months
G
7.02
11.07
+ 4 years, 5 months
H
7.06
11.08
+ 4 years, 2 months
I
7.06
9.08
+ 2 years, 2 months
J
6.06
9.07
+ 3 years, 1 month
A B
Reading Inference Intervention 2015 Inference intervention is designed for students who have a basic understanding of texts, but struggle to comprehend and infer. These students normally have a reading age of 7 and above. The intervention is provided during English lessons with a trained teaching assistant. Interventions are usually six weeks in duration. Below is a sample of data from the inference intervention.
A B C D E F G
Reading age before 6.11 8 8 7.05 8.05 7.08 7.06
Reading age after
After 6 weeks
8 8.03 8.08 8.09 9.06 8.09 9.06
1 year, 1 month 3 months 8 months 1 year, 4 months 1 year, 1 month 1 year, 1 month 2 years
Student G is a Year 7 EAL student. After six weeks intervention, student G has improved their reading age by one year, one month. Student G now feels more comfortable accessing a secondary curriculum and has noticeably gained more confidence in reading, writing and speaking.
Grow @ KS3 At Manchester Communication Academy, Grow@ KS3 is our latest intervention. Grow@KS3's main goal is to produce independent learners, who show improvement through targeted support in their reading and writing. It focuses on the areas that the child needs to develop and is accessed through individual or small group learning. Year 7 students with a reading level of 3 or less are targeted. It is a 10 week intervention of 3 sessions a week of 30-45 minute. A pilot study is currently underway, with impact due to be measured at the end of the academic year.