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.

^namechangecringe^
you can provide all the tutorials, videos, online sways and other content you like but if the child/parent can/will not engage there is fuck all you can do about it. our school gave out 3 brand new laptops to use for school work , at least one has not even been out of the box

Schools round is have historically suffered with funding because there are relatively few pupils who have qualified for PP.

However, many pupils in our area (Along with many others) will Have been disadvantaged in the current pandemic because both parents have been working full time trying to Also home school.

It will be wholly unfair if they link the catch up funding to PP as our school will probably get very little help

Emperor My DD was looking at grades 4/5 which are passes. her last report had predicted grades at passes for every subject which would be a massive achievement for her.

It doesn't take a particular leap to think that she could easily drop from 4s and 5s to 3s.

That could mean instead of 8 passes she ends up with zero.

It means that instead of being able to do a level 3 BTEC at college she has to start at level 2 and simultaneously retake Eng & maths.

It means that instead of a CV with '8 GCSE passes inc Eng & Maths' on it, she has zero. Which means that ongoing through life (when exactly what year the pandemic was has gone from people's minds) he job prospects will be forever hit.

Is that enough of a difference??

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

That's for one subject right? Did he mean secondary or primary? Exam year or not?

This echoes the 'all children matter' rhetoric versus 'vulnerable children matter'.

You can lay the blame at the door of feckless parents all you want but ultimately it's the children who are suffering from their inadequate parenting (for whatever reason. No judgements need to be made about the causes) and inadequate teaching. So if the government has a small pot of money over the summer of course it should go to vulnerable children not all children.

OP disadvantaged children ATTRACT extra funding to schools and suggesting that they drain resources from children who don't attract the funding is utterly ludicrous. PP disappears into the school budget and isn't ring-fenced for the recipients. It's often used to pay for a TA which benefits the entire class. Some PP kids won't need any or very little intervention at all, the money they attract is used elsewhere. Frankly, your whole attitude screams 'entitlement'. If you're concerned about school funding I suggest you contact your MP to ask why the government is sinking money into vanity projects such as painting a plane or MILLIONS on a fucking APP that doesn't even work. It's not disadvantaged kids that are depriving your child of the best possible education, it's the fucking government.

@nether there is talk that shielding will be over by the end of July so that will not be an issue in the governments eyes.

This echoes the 'all children matter' rhetoric versus 'vulnerable children matter'.

It really doesn't. It's 'poor children matter' versus 'all children matter'

Which is a crap tool for measurement when you can't pay to jump the queue for eg camhs or healthcare that's specialised

I thought the July date had be disavowed?

Has it been reiterated today?

And more to the point, as shielding only ends at level,1 on the Nando scale, is the government really about to say that's where we'll be in a mere 6 weeks?

If they have new scientific evidence that means the exceptionally vulnerable community actually isn't exceptionally vulnerable, do you know where it has been promulgated?

What I don’t get is we are paying teachers an income during this...why aren’t they providing more group lessons, tutorials etc?

I don't know, why bother paying the lazy fuckers at all when parents can do such a good job, eh? Sounds like a way to go for the future if you ask me. Teachers are so shite, just get parents to educate their children and save us millions.

I, like all of my colleagues, have not had a break since February. I just got out of a virtual meeting 20 minutes ago. So I've been paid to do my job - and some. Thanks.

Gav waffled a bit about shielding, said guidance would be coming out on what people would need to do, so I don’t think it will be fully lifted for all shielding people

@Splinkyplonk

Try and move past my hopeless parent quote which I fully accept reflects my frustration. I too am hopeless at this home Ed business. But my child will not get any catch up provision because he will not be counted as very disadvantaged. I am a key worker who has worker twice my hours at points during the crisis. It is bonkers to think that any child who has missed 3 plus months of school does not require extra tuition. The if this hasn't created major gaps across a whole generation then what on earth are schools doing every day? Why do local authorities get in such a state about pupil absence...

Apologies if someone has already mentioned this @Splinkyplonk but in terms of learning gaps, based on what my school (and other schools in the trust it is in) has done- we haven't started covering any new curriculum material until this week. For the Y10s and 12s who can't access Teams lessons- they will definitely need catch up tuition. For the lower year groups, they are doing booklets which are covering some new simple concepts, but predominantly re-enforcing prior learning. We've done this because we know not all students can or will work during lockdown and so have tried to minimise the learning gap as far as possible. What teachers feel really needs to happen is some input from exam boards to reflect the fact our exam year groups (10s and 12s) have lost so far a 5th of their in-school learning time. Whether or not Ofqual properly looks at this is yet to be seen but something does need to be put in place to reflect the fact these students have been out of school for a term. I would hope they remove a unit or so from exam papers next summer to reflect the lost teaching time.

The real question is who is getting the contract to run it. Pound to a penny it’s some sharp-suited Tory donor with his eye on the main prize. Tories gonna Tory.

I'm far from thrilled with the news from the briefing.

But OP, your views on disadvantaged children STINK! To confuse disadvantage with low ability and disruptive home shows some real bigoted views.

As other posters have pointed out to you, disadvantaged children have an array of abilities and home situations.

@Namechangecringe

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

@Namechangecringe wow how nice for your SIL! You must let me know which school she is at so I can apply for a nice doss there.

I speak for myself and the other teachers I know (representative of approx 6 secondary schools in my local area and a few further a field) and we have certainly not been sitting around. In fact, I can safely say working in lockdown has been more stressful than my training year ever was. For the simple fact that like many, many other people across the UK we are being asked to complete a lot of work tasks (phonecalls to kids, making resources and work booklets totally from scratch because we can't go in and access our school computer files, continuing to attend social services meetings and file reports and referrals for external agencies, write newsletter contributions, give support to vulnerable students and families, staff the key worker hub, plan and record assemblies, set and mark work online, run virtual tutor time sessions, run virtual lessons for y10 and 12, support 1:1 face to face meetings with y10 and y12, attend virtual staff and team meetings,engage with expected CPD- ALL while having ZERO childcare for our own children. My 2yo's nursery has been shut for all of lockdown. A number of my colleagues are in same situation. Even if it was open that would only buy me one day as grandparents normally do the other days for me.
Bottom line is that, as for many other workers trying to WFH atm, lots of teachers are run ragged under lockdown and their stress levels are high if not through the roof. So please STFU with your one, goady anecdotal story about your SIL sitting about doing sweet FA. She is not representative of the majority IMO.

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

@Noeuf

I know. Teachers know. We know children from all kinds of homes are struggling right now. Our own kids are struggling right now.

We also know that there are pupils in our schools who live in homes and circumstances most of us can't begin to contemplate because it's so far removed from our own experiences. And so if your child has his own bed, 3 meals a day, 8 hours uninterrupted sleep, clean clothes in a wardrobe, an internet connection and a parent who is worried about his progress at school, he's already doing so much better than many of these students labelled 'disadvantaged'. And many who aren't.

Focus on being supportive, doing what you can do to help. Don't fuss too much, let him have screen time where he plays too much Xbox and chats with his friends. The current situation is not the end of the world educationally. Schools and teachers will work it out.

SheWranglesRugRats
The real question is who is getting the contract to run it. Pound to a penny it’s some sharp-suited Tory donor with his eye on the main prize. Tories gonna Tory.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. I bet Hays, Reed and Randstad will make a fortune out of this. Fun fact for parents, did you know a school pays on average £100-150 a day for TA cover to an agency, the TA gets £55, Teachers cost £220 -£350 a day, Teacher gets £120. So when the Government says a tutor will cost £50 how much do you think will be getting added on top?

@TeenPlusTwenties yes I think we are. I am thinking primary as that's where I teach. I can most definitely see how this impacts KS4 and really don't know the solution for that.

*Lostmyshit
*
His additional needs are far beyond being resolved by allowing screen time and clean clothes although I appreciate your trying to reassure me.

What I'm trying to say is that when you get into the health/mental health arena there is no hierarchy. I can't pay to make it go away and he is losing a lot of education that was already patchy due to his poor attendance. He should be included in with other children who are struggling due to home life but are otherwise able. It's not a straight path from poverty leading up to wealth with ability/focus/engagement mirroring it

Most haven't missed out on anything vital? There's a lot being said about how few hours children are doing (by teachers mainly). But there's a lack of openness about how much time is needed to do the work at home rather than time lost through assemblies, play, announcements, settling down, admin, interruptions and where the teacher has to go over stuff at the slowest pace for all. The work doesn't take 6 hours, more time working as you go up the age groups.

Most children and parents have tried. The result will be students with differing levels of ability and knowledge of the curriculum. But that has always been true in a classroom.

@D4win have you got a Y10 child?

@Noeuf

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.

In government terms, I'm afraid to say that's exactly what it usually means

Lancrelady

I don't understand the face? Are you saying I'm being thick?

Oh no, I'm so sorry you thought that! Was just trying to find closest emoji on phone to sad face (tiny screen.)

OP also lost me at "hopeless parents" however, I listened to the news report about it today and thought that although my children are not disadvantaged (we get by - just) and I'm engaged with their learning, my daughter (yr10) has been hugely struggling. Will she have the opportunity for additional tutoring under this scheme?

I already know from her school that they will be providing booster classes from 20th August (they told us a week ago) and fully assume DD will have access to that, which I'm grateful for.

So I'd say, fairly good point OP, just delivered poorly.