School catch up fund

[Splinkyplonk]

Try and focus on the bigger picture here, I'm not being goady.

So the plan so far seems to be that of the 6.7 million school children, 2 million of the most disadvantaged (ie those with hopeless parents or low achievement anyway) will get extra one on one tutoring partly paid for by an extra pot of gov money.

What about the majority of kids who all have missed vital stages of learning. Is the truth its just up to schools and parents to make the effort and muddle along?

Clearly those who can pay for tutoring privately and have the capacity to supervise their children will just sort that out themselves in the absence of anything from government.

The result will just be a deeper divide in education standards between the haves and have nots.

I reckon it will be lobbed into the 'disadvantaged' pot which supports those children on free school meals / low incomes. My last school used the fund to help pay for an English and a Maths tutor to deliver sessions as 1-2-1 or 1-2-2.

Wonder if they will change the census date for PP

I don't think the new term will pick up on the 75% at all.

It's more likely the new term will either pick up on the key skills from the previous year and identify gaps based on skills that have been missed over lockdown or pick up on the key skills from the new year group, assess against those and work backwards to ensure the gaps needed to reach those skills are taught. That is why schools I know haven't taught anything new during lockdown - we have concentrated on consolidating the key skills so on return to school, we can pick up where we left off.

It's what a lot of schools do at the start of an academic year in order to make sure we know where to start from as learning also goes back a bit due to the summer holidays.

So pick up on the 100% and work backwards from there.

I read the announcement as saying some of the fund is for ANY child that has fallen behind - it could be a child who has SEN or is vulnerable or is economically or socially disadvantaged eg has not had access to IT. And I also understood the money is available across the next academic year, not just the summer vacation.

Honestly I don't have any problem at all with the funds being given to the most needy first. Everyone is behind, but some are more behind than others.

I really hope that it's possible to get high calibre tutors and that's where I fear it will fall down. Like the promised laptops for those without IT at home - they simply haven't materialised. It seems like schools will have a massive task trying to coordinate this scheme, and ensure children are being given the right support and value for money is obtained.

More work for teachers, I expect. I'm increasingly feeling very sorry for the teachers. I started off not feeling too sympathetic but as the weeks pass, I feel more and more sorry for them as next year is going to be extremely difficult. It would be great to be able to take out some kids and bring them up to the expected standard with tutoring so that the class as a whole can continue with the new year's curriculum and not slow down the pace to that of the children who have been unable to achieve anything since March.

Bert maybe you and I are coming at it from different ends of the scale? Key skills is all very well and good in KS1-3, but My DD is KS4 and there is a lot of content to be covered. Some subjects have spent this term embedding existing content/skills, others have needed to plough ahead with new content.

Bloody hell, it’s one term. If that’s enough to have a tangible impact on lifetime education standards then the students in question must have been hopelessly let down in the first place. It’s not a big deal so long as curriculums are suitably adjusted and teachers are mindful of the knowledge gap. It’s 1/42th of time spent in education not counting nursery/preschool or tertiary level education and assuming that they’ve done nothing at all in this time. It’s not a huge amount.

What do people mean by disadvantage? Your child is not necessarily at a disadvantage because you have been working. Some kids will be able to catch up once they are back in September I’m sure the teachers realise this and they will have to plan accordingly for the whole class

Most kids will be in the same boat. I’m sure they will be fine!

@EmperorCovidula I agree

What I don’t get is we are paying teachers an income during this...why aren’t they providing more group lessons, tutorials etc? My sil has literally sat on her bum since lockdown started and I can’t imagine she’s the only teacher doing so. I also saw that the tutors they want to use cost £50 an hour?!? The whole thing feels thrown together too

Disadvantaged for school purposes usually mean pupils qualifying for Pupil Premium

All children need to plug their learning gap. Especially at schools with low provision. Links and a few worksheets with no interaction from school are of little use to either end of the spectrum.

Emperor It’s not a huge amount.

It's a massive amount if your child is in y10 and was only looking at 4/5s before all this happened.

@Namechangecringe we are sat on our bums, lesson planning, marking, hosting online lessons. I sat for 2 hours today on Zoom staring at myself. Not a single kid turned up to my lesson. I spend most of my time now setting work, which takes a lot of time, and then emailing parents 2 weeks later begging for some work from their kids and offering support and zoom sessions. I am doing my bit, on my bum, in front of my laptop, while also managing my own baby (who at 18 months doesnt occupy herself for any more than 10 minutes). But no doubt I will be expected to work miracles to get these kids to catch up in September after they have spend the last 3 months doing nothing.

Watching the briefing, its pretty clear. This money is for DISADVANTAGED students in schools, so pupil premium students. This isnt going to be available for students who have just fallen behind. It sounds like a top up to the PP allowance that schools get already, along with tutoring money for disadvantaged kids. This means kids with SEND or kids who havent had the ability to do homeschooling to the same extent as others wont get targeted help unless they are already pp students.

I probably worded it really badly, teachers do an amazing job. What I mean is the whole organisation of it all had been crap. I’m not sure throwing money at over priced tutors is the solution! I feel like the pm just says whatever he thinks people want to hear with no actual plan behind it all

sqidgebum unless those children have a good reason for not turning up your first lessons when they return had best be on manners and personal responsibility. What a complete waste of your time, I'd have been furious.

I've just read the guide they have mentioned and it talks a lot about 'disadvantaged' I am really hopeful it includes people from decent income homes who have SEND or complex needs otherwise my son is fucked. There is always this blanket approach to support towards the pupil premium kids and it just misses so many others out. I can't access the specialist tutoring or even the basic tutoring my son needs.

Trust me @Namechangecringe, the teachers have been victims of the complete lack of planning on the PMs part as much as the students. We didnt have a module on 'how to teach 300 students from your dining room table with your 18 month swinging from your top' during University. We have all done the best we can. We got our information about what we needed to do from the PMs briefings, the same as everyone else.

Op, interested to hear what your solution is then?

The idea of catching up over summer holidays was a non-starter because the majority of teachers have still been working since March shutdown. There are still parents refusing to send their kids in anyway so why would they suddenly change their minds and sign up to summer school when they are choosing not to access school.

The schools will as someone else said assess the kids. Teach to the average levels and help those below catch up and then take if forward from there.

"I very much doubt that any really bright children will fall into the 'most disadvantaged' group"

Well my dd1s best friend is exceptionally bright and pp so I resent this comment.

Dd2 has always been close to the top of top sets but experienced extreme anxiety and school refusing this year. CAMHS support has been patchy and hasn't engaged in home learning at all. Probably autistic PDA but of course unable to proceed with assesments right now.

Dd3 hard to motivate so I guess I am one of those crap parents.

I sincerely hope that suppirt will be offered to dd2 especially as she has effectively missed almost a year of education.

Dd3 academically average but has the luxury of time to catch up.

FFs children from the 'most disadvantaged' for the tutoring programme.

I am worried sick about my son and because we earn enough we will be excluded.

I'm so tired of fighting battles - being middle class doesn't give you super powers.

Huge apology. I keep having mini meltdowns on threads about school or children.

12 weeks at 2 hours a week can deliver up to 5 months of work for those from the most disadvantaged families.

That would cost c£1000 here if I tried to find it.

@TeenPlusTwenties if they were only looking at 4/5 then what difference does it make?

@Splinkyplonk

I very much doubt that any really bright children will fall into the 'most disadvantaged' group. And do you seriously think that schools will do a survey to find out which children have key worker parents who havent been able to do online learning every day because they have been working so hard.... Or which children haven't had exclusive access to a laptop... I very much doubt it. Berternie has an idealistic plan about assessing ability. Is that genuinely what most disadvantaged means in schools? It usually refers to children with social workers, and from disruptive backgrounds. It has nothing to do with academic assessments. Of course the most disadvantage and vulnerable need assistance. But this is not at all the same thing as providing academic catchup for the majority of pupils. I really can't believe that no one else is a bit disappointed or frustrated by this.

Well, you clearly wouldn't have been one of them, irrespective of the economic group your parents put you into.

Higher ability children in the PPG has been a category in a lot of school information management systems for a very long time - because, despite their ability, their circumstances have been found over time (and over entire cohorts, both at school and a national level) to negatively affect their final attainment levels. Through such things as not having access to technology, a quiet place to study, their parents not having the ability to devote time or having the academic background to help, etc, etc...

But how dare they be smart and poor, eh? Can't have them getting ideas above their station, can we? Best write them off and devote the time and money to the nice middleclass kids who couldn't be arsed to get out of bed instead?