Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the school has received additional funding to support students to make excellent progress in their learning going forward.  This is called the Coronavirus Catch Up Premium.

Prior to the 2020/21 academic year, the school has also received extra money to assist students who arrive at Knights Templar not having reached a minimum level in either English or maths, or both.  This was called the Catch Up Premium.

Coronavirus Catch Up Premium

The Department for Education have said the following:

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. The aggregate impact of lost time in education will be substantial, and the scale of our response must match the scale of the challenge.

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, and the government intends for schools and colleges to fully open in September.

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.

For the academic year 2020-2021 the school has been allocated £82,960. Schools have the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their students and circumstances.

We will use the money to ensure that our curriculum remains broad and ambitious and that the provision of remote education where this is needed will align as closely as possible with in school provision and be fully integrated into school curriculum planning.

In line with guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation, these aims will be achieved by focusing on strategies in three categories:

• Teaching and whole-school strategies
• Targeted support
• Wider strategies

These will include supporting great teaching through the provision of training and resources for staff, offering transition support for the return to school and using assessment and feedback to determine how to most effectively support our students.

Structured and bespoke intervention programmes may include engagement with the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) and there will be a particular focus on ensuring access to technology, especially for disadvantaged students.

Following the full return to school in September, we are currently in the process of identifying individual needs and matching those with appropriate strategies.

A more detailed plan will be published in due course.

Further information can be found here:

Department for Education - Coronavirus Catch Up Premium

Education Endowment Foundation - Covid-19 Support Guide for Schools

Catch Up Premium

Year 7 Catch Up Premium Report - 2019/20