01842 668080
Organisation: Ysgol Emrys Ap Iwan
Intervention: Catch Up®, Catch Up® Numeracy
Submitted by: Anne Hickey
Background
Emrys ap Iwan is a secondary school situated in Abergele. There are approximately 1140 learners on roll; 27% are registered and claim FSM, and 23% of learners are on the ALN register. The mission statement, ‘Dare to Achieve’, demonstrates the school’s dedication to the success of every learner. The school is committed to excellent teaching through the Teacher Effectiveness Enhancement Programme, to ensure all learners are challenged and supported in every lesson.
A number of interventions have been implemented at various levels to support our learners. Catch Up® Literacy and Catch Up® Numeracy are two of the interventions used in our intervention programme.
Implementation
Catch Up® Literacy and Catch Up® Numeracy are well established within the school. A Catch Up® coordinator oversees the interventions, which are implemented by two staff that are trained to deliver them. The school has two designated areas for the provision, the Literacy Hub and Access.
The school maps literacy and numeracy intervention for all learners through five ‘waves’. Learners are identified through standardised reading scores and put in to the appropriate wave. The SENCo and other staff responsible for interventions meet on a termly basis to discuss the progress of learners and the potential for them to progress to the next wave.
Learners in Wave 1 and Wave 2 have standardised scores of 85 and below and 86-90, respectively. Once the learners have been identified, parents are informed about the intervention that their son/daughter will follow and staff are available to discuss this with them. Learners in Wave 2 are put onto the Catch Up® intervention. The trained Catch Up® staff plan a timetable of interventions and the learners are withdrawn from lessons twice a week.
Files are kept by the Catch Up® staff to ensure they are up to date. Progress of learners is monitored on our own school tracking system and Catch Up® tracking forms.
Case Study 1 - Catch Up® Literacy
Catch Up® Literacy, Year 7
When this learner first started the Catch Up® Literacy intervention with me, she appeared quite shy and timid, and a little withdrawn. She had an awareness of basic reading skills, she was able to recognise most letter shapes and able to understand the concepts of letters and words, but her confidence in reading was low.
At the start of Catch Up®, in March, her chronological age was 12 years 6 months and her reading age was 6 years 7 months. In September, her reading age was 8 years 10 months. In 7 months, she had made a gain of +27 months in her reading age, and progressed through 4 Catch Up® Literacy levels.
Throughout the sessions, her confidence grew with her reading and she was reading fluently and attempting words that she didn’t know. She became less withdrawn and she really enjoyed the sessions. We built up a nice relationship. As shown, her reading age has increased, although she still has some way to go to be within her chronological age, but the Catch Up® Literacy intervention is certainly helping her to achieve where she needs to be. She loves reading now and enjoys choosing books to read.
Case Study 2 - Catch Up® Numeracy
Catch Up® Numeracy, Year 7
Learner B has completed phase 1 of the Catch Up® Numeracy intervention. The intervention has helped this learner to become confident about handling numbers and dealing with maths problems. It’s quite clear that he’s become far more comfortable with answering verbal questions.
When the learner began Catch Up® Numeracy in February, his chronological age was 11 yrs 6 mths and his maths age was 9 yrs 9 mths. By July, his maths age had risen to 10 yrs 7 mths. Therefore, in just 5 months he had made a +10 months gain; he had also progressed by 6 Catch Up® levels.
The Catch Up® approach has allowed the learner to build on the work that we’d previously done and very often he was able to use methods and techniques we had used previously to help him answer the tasks set. I would often see things “clicking”.
The learner tells me that since he began the intervention he also feels more confident in his maths class either when offering verbal answers or doing the work set.
Aims
• Establish and maintain learning and personal development as the core purposes of the school
• Create a sense of community where everyone is equally valued
• Support and nurture individuals so that they gain in confidence and become
independent learners
• Provide challenge within and beyond the classroom so that learning in its widest sense is an exciting and rewarding experience
• Insist on respect for one another and discipline in all aspects of school life, and to support
students to develop these qualities
• Develop each individual’s potential and to inspire all members of the school community to
achieve at the highest level possible.