Children and young people across the country experienced unprecedented disruption to their education as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19). Those from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds will be among those hardest hit. The aggregate impact of lost time in education will be substantial, and the scale of our response must match the scale of the challenge.
Schools were allocated a total of £80 for each pupil in years reception through to 11 to support schools work in ‘catching up’ their children. This was known as the Covid Catch Up Premium, and later became the Recovery Premium which was then withdrawn in 2024.
Schools were directed to use this funding for specific activities to support their pupils to catch up for lost teaching over the previous months, in line with the guidance on curriculum expectations for the next academic year
Schools were given the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their cohort and circumstances.
To support schools to make the best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) published a coronavirus (COVID-19) support guide for schools with evidence-based approaches to catch up for all students. We used this document to help us direct our additional funding in the most effective way.
Our detailed ‘Covid Catch Up Strategy Plan’ for 2020-2022 can be viewed here; the total amount received by Lord Deramore’s was £17,280.
In the following years the reporting of the spending of Recovery Premium was integrated into the Pupil Premium Strategy.