Excellence Awards

22nd March 2017 - Catch Up® Excellence Awards: St Robert's Catholic Primary School, BRIDGEND - SILVER award winner

Organisation: St Robert's Catholic Primary School
Intervention: Catch Up® Literacy, Catch Up® Numeracy
Submitted by: Barbara Murphy

Background
St Robert’s Primary School is made up of 183 children aged from 3-11, and serves a wide catchment area with mixed socio-economic needs. The school has approximately 7% of its pupils identified as SEN, with a further 6% of pupils identified as receiving Basic Skills support. The identification of and provision for these children is the responsibility of all staff, but is monitored and supervised by the ALNco (also the Deputy Head Teacher) and by the Headteacher, who takes on the role of SENco. In previous years, the only support available to children was Language Support when pupils were identified as SEN. The HT and DHT both felt that some children were being missed because they did not meet the criteria for this support, or that support was needed so that they didn’t end up back on the SEN register. After the successful implementation of Catch Up® Literacy in 2013, where all staff could see improvements in pupils’ literacy skills and their confidence in this area, the school decided to also take on board Catch Up® Numeracy (2014).

Implementation
There are a number of ways in which pupils are identified as needing Catch Up® support in school:
1 – A child that has come off Language Support and needs consolidation and support for a further year;
2 – A child scoring 6-18 months below their reading age and a standardised score on the National Reading Test between 85 and 95;
3 – A standardised score on the National Numeracy test between 85 and 95;
4 – Nomination by class teacher or by parent.
Once those pupils that may need additional support are identified, they are looked at by the ALNco and SENco to ensure suitability before being allocated to one of the two LSOs who deliver the interventions. Afternoons are set aside for the interventions and this ensures that there is plenty of time for these to be planned for and delivered effectively. Once a child has been selected and has completed their initial assessment (and is still a suitable candidate for the intervention), parents are informed and given a leaflet about the intervention. Previously, we have also run workshops for the parents so we can share resources with them and answer their questions. We also have a home-school link book which is completed by the LSO and sent home with the child, so that parents know what has been covered in the intervention that week.

There are regular discussions between the two LSOs and the ALNco as to how well pupils are progressing, and this information is added to the Catch Up® tracker and Provision Mapping tool the school uses. These members of staff have been supported by the ALNco, who regularly watches Catch Up® sessions and monitors these using the Catch Up® monitoring proformas. The ALNco has looked over planning proformas and completed monitoring proformas for these. All planning sheets and assessments are stored in an intervention folder, found in each classroom. These can then also be accessed by the class teacher.

The ALNco and SENco have completed listening to learner sessions with those children that receive Catch Up®. The children have always spoken very highly of this intervention. They comment that it has boosted their confidence in class when responding in literacy and numeracy sessions and that it has benefited them in their learning in these areas.

Case Study 1 - Catch Up® Literacy
Prior to taking part in Catch Up® Literacy in Year 2, Pupil A was receiving Language Support in the school. Having made good progress on this, she was placed on Catch Up® Literacy to ensure that she continued to make good progress. She had 36 Catch Up® sessions throughout the year, and made a ratio gain in her reading age of 3.59, based on the duration of the intervention. Prior to the intervention, her reading age was 4 months below her chronological age. At the end of the intervention, her reading age was 9.00 years – 15 months above her chronological age! Within her Catch Up® Literacy assessments, all of her scores increased including notable improvements in reading sight words (initial assessment score 114/240, final assessment score 226/240).

Case Study 2 - Catch Up® Numeracy
Pupil B is a fairly confident member of the school, who has had some issues at home and was once identified as ‘Looked after and cared for’.
Prior to receiving the intervention, Pupil B had a number age of 7 years and 4 months, which was 23 months below her chronological age. She started the intervention on Catch Up® Numeracy level 3. She worked well in the sessions and was always focussed and keen to learn. After 6 months of intervention, her number age had increased to 9 years and 5 months, being just 8 months below her chronological age. Her ratio gain – based on the period of intervention – was 3.55, and she gained two sub-levels in her NC levels (from 3 to 4-). In this current academic year, she has been assessed again and shows continued improvement. She now has a number age of 12 years and 1 month, which is a full year above her chronological age.

Aims
Each person in our school is unique and our intention is that they will develop spiritually, morally, socially and academically to their full potential with Jesus as their guide, the Holy Spirit as their inspiration and God as their loving Father.

We set high academic and behavioural standards and the staff is committed and hardworking, to enable the children achieve their full potential.

The strong relationship we have with our Parish of St. Robert’s enables our children to belong to a wider supportive faith community.