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Research School Network: Catch Up Premium and Effective Literacy Interventions Gill Dowson – Making the Right Choice to Provide the Best Support

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Catch Up Premium and Effective Literacy Interventions

Gill Dowson – Making the Right Choice to Provide the Best Support

by Carmel Research School
on the

Gill Dowson

Gill Dowson

Headteacher of St Joseph’s Catholic Academy, Norton. Primary Literacy Lead for Carmel Research School.

Gill can be contacted via research@​bhcet.​org.​uk

Read more aboutGill Dowson

As we face the daily reality of more lost time due to school closure, and the widening of the learning gap for our pupils, (especially those from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds) choosing effective interventions becomes more essential than ever.

Catch up premium and the constraints of time can bring a pressure to get it right’ for our pupils for whom we need to help to close the gap. This should not be a time to panic buy or fall into the trap of buying into the same package that our neighbouring schools have bought into because they tell us something works for their school. Surely we have all fallen into that trap before, and been left with many a white elephant too many times. We need to make more informed choices for our pupils to ensure they have the best possible chances; but how can we have a catch up plan when we know so little about the deficit? What is the best repair strategy?

Choosing the right program or catch up strategy for the individual pupils, in our specific schools needs research and careful consideration. This is not as straightforward as it would seem: a commercial program that works for one school, will not necessarily work for others The EEF has published a coronavirus (COVID-19) support guide for schools with evidence-based approaches to catch up for all students, to support schools to make the best use of their funding.

With a focus on closing the gap in Literacy, and the support of catch up funding, we should review which intervention programs are available. Recommendation 7, from the EEF’s Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2 guidance report states: Use high-quality structured interventions to help pupils who are struggling with their literacy. From this recommendation, questions arise:

How do I know which program to choose?

Who should deliver these interventions?

What is the best way to implement the program?

As practitioners, we want the answers to these questions. The big question being the first – How do I know which program to choose?
It would be easy if someone were to tell us which intervention was going to magically fill that gap; bring a child up to speed; accelerate our results, but no one can tell us the answer, because we cannot have a one size fits all approach to recovery.

The market is saturated with packages which claim that children who receive their program, can be found to make up to six months’ progress in literacy respectively, compared to the children who received standard provision. Before jumping in with high cost, low impact interventions, a starting point might be to consider the needs of the school rather than a particular package. One program will not solve everything; each pupil is different and there will be needs which should be diagnosed and addressed. It is at this point we can consider who should deliver the interventions, any training implications, and the best way to deliver the program.

Many interventions claim to be effective, but this is often based on the publishing company’s own sample and it can therefore be difficult to assess whether there is any research to support their findings. When considering a Literacy intervention for example, it may be useful to question and compare each particular program’s capacity, to the following recommendations from the EEF guidance report:

Develop pupils’ language capability to support their reading and writing

Support pupils to develop fluent reading capabilities

Teach reading comprehension strategies through modelling and supported practice

Teach writing composition strategies through modelling and supported practice

Develop pupils’ transcription and sentence construction skills through extensive practice

Target teaching and support by accurately assessing pupil needs

Additionally, Evidence 4 Impact is a database which lists many educational interventions – not just literacy – and may support your decision if there is a certain intervention package of interest you are considering. The EEF Promising Projects also gives a list of EEF-funded projects, which have shown promising results when trialed.

Whatever the choice of catch up intervention, the emphasis (from the DfE guidance in Nov 2020) is to do what suits your cohort and your circumstances. If our pupils, especially our vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils, are to be given the best strategies to repair the deficit in their learning, then we have a responsibility to make the best choices on their behalf.

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