Excellence Awards

25th April 2014 - Catch Up® Excellence Awards: St Dunstan’s Church of England Primary School - BRONZE award winner (Catch Up® Numeracy)

Organisation: St Dunstan CofE Primary School
Intervention: Catch Up® Numeracy
Submitted by: Zoe Newman, Numeracy Coordinator

Background
The School first introduced Catch Up® Numeracy in November 2011, to KS1 only. It proved to be a success, so another TA was trained. In autumn 2012, we took part in a research project looking at the effectiveness of Catch Up® Numeracy. We wanted to take part as we needed to find a programme that could be used to help pupils to make progress and realise their potential. Maths has shown some ‘slippage’ between KS1 and KS2 and we wanted to see if this could make a difference to our pupils.

Implementation
Catch Up® was organised to take place twice a week during the afternoons. If the pupils were unable to access a session, new time was set aside to deliver the intervention. The pupils were identified using a range of information as potentially being able to benefit from extra support. Parents were contacted and the intervention explained to them and they gave their full permission, signing an agreement.

We used a standardised test to measure the pupils’ levels and standardised scores before the project began, and again at the end of two terms. The children improved their levels and standardised scores, and in the progress that they had made through the Catch Up® levels.

We had 2 members of staff trained – one of our teaching assistants was selected to work with the children and the SENCO was trained to be the Catch Up® coordinator. The maths subject’s leader ensured that the teaching assistant had all the resources that she needed and was able to help with any subject knowledge or pedagogical enquiries. The coordinator observed the teaching evidence for the TA’s OCN accreditation.

Case Study 1 - Catch Up® Numeracy
Child A began to struggle with maths in Year 1. During spring term of Year 1 she followed an intervention programme, with 4 other pupils, called ‘Max’s Marvellous Maths’ (a group intervention, aimed primarily at Year 1.) This seemed to have some impact and she continued with a maths target on her IEP for Year 2 and Year 3. At the end of KS1, she was reported as a level 1.

At the end of Year 3 she was assessed as a 1a. During the autumn term of Year 4, the Catch Up® Numeracy project started and her standardised score was measured to be 69.

Child A enjoyed working 1:1 with her specialist trained TA. The TA delivered 2 sessions per week, and there would be an extra session arranged if one was cancelled for any reason. The learning achieved with the TA was fed back to the class teacher so that it could be reinforced in lessons. As Child A began to make progress, she was able to access more of the learning in class. She moved up ability groups twice over the 6-months project. She also moved up in the times tables clubs , showing good progress over time.

At the end of the project, when she was reassessed, her standardised score had risen from 69 to 82! In the end-of-year optional SATs she attained a level 2a, only 2 marks from a 3c. Child A is more confident in maths and now has a “Don’t say no, give it a go” approach.

Aims
We encourage all our children to achieve high standards and to grow as happy, confident, compassionate, independent young people who show respect for others, have a desire to learn and who are eager to make positive and caring contributions to the wider community, its people and environment.