Premiums

During the latter part of the summer holidays, Youth Challenge staff provided a three week summer school programme predominantly aimed at supporting a cohort of KS3 students who had joined our provision following the periods of Covid lockdown.  Although there was an academic aspect to the activities on offer, increasing academic progress was not our main aim for this programme.

The programme was devised to address the factors for exclusion related to this particular cohort, and aimed to address resilience, motivation, communication and collaborative working skills.  We utilised a number of local service providers with specific expertise in these areas.

To address the issue of resilience and motivation we worked with the Phenix Division who delivered sessions on first aid, orienteering and personal survival skills.  They also facilitated a five-mile expedition in less than favourable weather conditions which really challenged our students' mindset but left them with a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

To build on our students' awareness of oracy and communication skills, we employed the expertise of Octagon Theatre staff who provided an onsite workshop based around tone and non-verbal communication.  This workshop resulted in us uncovering some previously unknown acting talent amongst our year 8 pupils who have now been enrolled on an Arts Award programme with The Octagon Theatre as part of our weekly ECM sessions.

To develop collaborative working skills, we spent two days at The Anderton Centre where students engaged in a range of water sports and group activities that put their team work to the test.  The students thoroughly enjoyed these sessions and have requested that we revisit the centre, which we intend to do in the warmer months.

We conducted a satisfaction survey with parents in which we posed questions relating to their child's enjoyment of the activities provided, the range of activities on offer and the likelihood of them attending any future summer school programmes.  The results of this survey were overwhelmingly positive, and we hope to be able to offer a similar programme in the future.

Click the following link for the expenditure of the Summer School: Summer school claim form 2021

What is Catch-up Funding?

Children and young people across the country have experienced unprecedented disruption to their education as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19). Those from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds will be among those hardest hit.

We know that we have the professional knowledge and expertise in the education system to ensure that children and young people recover and get back on track. Returning to normal educational routines as quickly as possible will be critical to our national recovery.

The government has announced £1 billion of funding to support children and young people to catch up. This includes a one-off universal £650 million catch-up premium for the 2020 to 2021 academic year to ensure that schools have the support they need to help all pupils make up for lost teaching time.

Allocation

School allocations will be calculated on a per pupil basis, providing each mainstream school with a total of £80 for each pupil in years reception through to 11.

Youth Challenge will receive £22,080 for the 2020/21 academic year.

Utilisation

Schools should use this funding for specific activities to support their pupils to catch up for lost teaching over the previous months, in line with the guidance on curriculum expectations for the next academic year. Schools have the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their cohort and circumstances.

At Youth Challenge we have carefully considered the areas that would most benefit from this additional funding. We will work with pupils at Youth Challenge to overcome barriers to achievement, such as: 

1.  Falling behind age related expectations
2.  Low Literacy
3.  Low self-esteem, aspiration and lack of resilience
4.  Low attendance
5.  Social and emotional and mental health concerns  
6.  Poverty in terms of resources for learning, space to work at home
7.  Social communication and interaction

To overcome those barriers we intend to spend the Covid Catch-up premium to contribute towards the costs of:-

● Increase in transport opportunities across the local authority to reduce pupil use of public transport.

● Specialised attendance officer to monitor and set actions for daily attendance.

● Additional mentoring for those pupils who have a long history of non-attendance with some pupils

 exhibiting such complex needs.

● Additional support in lessons; individual one to one intervention in literacy.

● Improved our screening for SEN KBIT – due to increase in pupils with underlying SEN difficulties. 

● Access to a specialist dyslexia practitioner.

● Funding time for the pastoral team to complete transition work into post 16 or to integrate into mainstream school.

● Funding community exposure activities to develop self-esteem and communication skills.

Accountability and Monitoring

As with all government funding, school leaders must be able to account for how this money is being used to achieve the goal of schools getting back on track and teaching a normal curriculum as quickly as possible.

Youth Challenge will be transparent in tracking and accounting for the funding.

Please click this link to access the Covid-19 catch-up premium spending summary for Youth Challenge