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Organisation: Trelewis Primary School
Intervention: Catch Up® Literacy
Submitted by: Lisa Robertson
Background
Trelewis Primary school is a single form entry Primary school with its own full time Nursery provision, set in the semi-rural village of Trelewis within Merthyr Tydfil. There are 240 children on roll of which 22.91% are in receipt of free school meals. Projected data for ALN pupils for this academic year (those who have/will have completed IDP’s) is 4.97%.
20.83% of children receive targeted intervention that falls below additional learning provision. Our Catch Up® intervention is included within this. On entry in Nursery baseline data shows a large range of ability. Interventions are in place in school to close the gap in progress.
We have a dedicated Intervention Coach who delivers a range of interventions for both literacy and numeracy. Intervention data progress is assessed 3 times throughout the academic year in November, February and June. Based on these results, the pupils will move from one intervention to another or complete their intervention journey and no longer require targeted support.
The Catch Up® intervention was first used in school on recommendation from the Local Authority in 2006. Due to the good value for money that it provides and the success rate of progress for individual pupils it has remained a standard intervention to the present day.
Implementation
We use data gathered from an individual reading test – (SSRCT – fifth edition) to determine who meets our school-based criteria for access to our Catch Up® intervention.
Once identified the children are subject to a pupil progress discussion between our Intervention coach, Basic Skills manager and ALNCo. Advice is also taken from the pupil’s class teacher regarding progress in class. Each child’s parents are then sent an information letter outlining what the Catch Up® intervention is for and when the it will start. Pupils’ interventions are then updated on our Provision Map online software so the intervention is linked to any support plans that are current and shared with at home.
Each child identified is timetabled for a 15-minute session, twice a week with our intervention coach. These sessions are timetabled on the same day at the same time each week to ensure that there is consistency for the children and they know exactly when their intervention will take place. During the week there is a free slot within the intervention coach’s timetable for any pupils who are absent when their session is allocated. This ensures that they do not miss out.
Progress is monitored each session by a detailed evaluation sheet with commentary on any part of the session that they found particularly difficult or indeed any part that they excelled at. This information is then shared with class teachers of the children on a fortnightly basis.
Case Study 1 - Catch Up® Literacy
Child A came onto the Catch Up® Literacy intervention in the Spring term when she was in Year 4. She had a reading age of 8 years and 4 months which showed she was 7 months behind her chronological age. Her class teacher said she lacked confidence during her literacy sessions alongside her peers, so the one-to-one focused attention would help build her self-esteem.
Child A was diagnosed with Dyslexia by our Educational Psychologist. So, she would access her Toe-by-Toe book as well as Catch Up® Literacy. She used a coloured overlay to support with her reading. She enjoyed using it as it helped her to focus on one sentence at a time rather than seeing the whole page.
At the start of Catch Up® she was very hesitant when building and blending unfamiliar words, she was always worried she would get the words wrong. Over the last few months, she has gained confidence with her reading and has progressed through the Catch Up® levels. When she was assessed in November 2022 her fluency had improved so much. Her reading age is now 12 years and 6 months which shows she has made 50 months progress overall after 9 months on the Catch Up® Literacy intervention.
Child A said, “My heart is beating so fast, I can’t believe I read all that”.
Child A’s family were delighted with her progress, they said “This is fabulous news, seeing her develop into a confident, capable, and happy girl is what any parent wants. You are all helping her reach for the stars. It’s amazing to see her reading and confidence improve week by week”.
Case Study 2 - Catch Up® Literacy
Child B presents with historic difficulties in literacy, the first of which were identified during Year 2. At this time, extra support was given at a class level using one-to-one or small group adult supported tasks, with a range of supporting materials such as individual Thrass charts, word banks, extra reading sessions and a good level of support from home.
At the end of Year 2 it was apparent that Child B needed more support than what was available through our universal provision for literacy. Closure of school due to Covid also had an impact during this time. Child B began attending a small Learning Base provision for up to 10 pupils for Literacy support (4 mornings a week for 1 hour each day). Child B continued to access this provision until his Salford reading age score showed he was -22 months behind his chronological age (6:04).
At this point Child B started to access Catch Up® Literacy and is continuing to make progress. After 7 months on the Catch Up® Literacy intervention Child B has made 23 months progress overall.
Child B was also diagnosed by the school Educational Psychologist in February 2022 as having dyslexic tendencies.
His self-esteem and self-confidence have grown immensely during the last 12 months.
Child B’s Mam was really pleased with his progress.
“This is absolutely amazing I'm crying happy tears, massive thanks to Mrs Robertson for everything she has done, he's achieved so much. I'm super proud of him”