Excellence Awards

15th October 2013 - Catch Up® Excellence Awards: Ysgol Bodfari, Denbighshire – SILVER award winner

Organisation: Ysgol Bodfari School
Intervention: Catch Up® Literacy, Catch Up® Numeracy
Submitted by: Mrs Susan Dick, Headteacher, Ysgol Bodfari

Background
Ysgol Bodfari is a small, rural school in Denbighshire. Our aim is to foster an atmosphere of respect and co-operation between pupils, staff, parents, governors and the wider community.

As an English medium school, we are committed to promoting the language and culture of Wales in which Welsh is taught as a second language. Our mission statement is ‘Learning from each other, succeeding together’.

Children are often taught in small groups, or individually. Our aim is to ensure that each child is given the utmost help and motivation to achieve their potential and become independent learners, across all aspects of a broad and balanced curriculum, within a secure and stimulating environment.

Implementation
Literacy and Numeracy are priority areas in the Schools Development Plan. The School Effectiveness Grant has been used to fund Catch Up® training for our Teaching Assistants which then meets both the Teaching Assistants’ individual professional development needs and the priorities in the School Development Plan.

Local Authority specialists have delivered some sessions of Catch Up® Literacy and Numeracy in our school and also provided training and support. The school uses teacher assessment and NFER test results to identify learners for the Catch Up® programme and parents are informed that their children have been identified for additional support.

Meetings are arranged so that the Catch Up® co-ordinator can communicate with parents verbally, in order to explain the Catch Up® system fully. Co- ordinators plan a timetable of interventions with the class Teacher and Teaching Assistants, so sessions are scheduled for appropriate times throughout the week.

The provision of Catch Up® is reviewed regularly and discussed with the Local Authority as appropriate. Catch Up® files are monitored regularly and a mid-year review is held with the County Literacy Advisor, which includes updated data.

Files are kept by the Teaching Assistants to ensure they are up to date, follow excellent practice and faithful to the intervention process with evidence. Progress of selected learners is monitored using Local Authority spread sheets, our own school tracking system and Catch Up® tracking forms.

Case Study 1 - Catch Up® Literacy
Child A (Year 6) joined the school in Key Stage 2 and had settled well into class. She has special educational needs for behavioural and emotional difficulties.

When she arrived, she was lacking in confidence and self-esteem. Her NFER Standardised Scores at the end of Year 5 was 94 for Language and 81 for Mathematics. It was decided that she would benefit from some individual Catch Up® teaching sessions with one of the class teachers for both Numeracy and Literacy.

Child A has responded very well and has shown a particular interest in non-fiction texts. She is now able to select the relevant information and is more confident to read aloud and answer questions in a small group. Child A has moved from Catch Up® Level 9 to 11 within 6 months.

Her confidence and self-esteem have noticeably improved due to both the additional individual teaching support and the Catch Up® support provided.

Case Study 2 - Catch Up® Numeracy
Child C (Year 5) began to struggle with mathematics in Year 3 and would delay starting her work by using avoidance strategies. At the start of Catch Up® Numeracy her maths age was 6 years and 11 months and her chronological age was 8 years 4 months (difference -16 months).

She responded well to the sessions and built up a good relationship with the specialist from the local authority who worked with her. Her confidence began to grow and she began to settle down to work independently in maths lessons. She worked well to learn her times tables, which has had a positive impact on her work and working with a partner.

At the end of Catch Up®, Child C had made excellent progress. Her maths age was 10 years 5 months and her chronological age was 9 years 4 months (difference +1 year 1 month). Her maths age gain from test to test was 42 months. This had a very positive impact on her confidence and self-esteem

Aims
We have a caring, family orientated outlook and firmly believe that children learn best when they feel happy and secure. ‘Learning from each other, succeeding together’.