Overcoming the impact of the lockdown on maths and English

What is the Recovery Premium?

In February, the government has announced a £302 million “Recovery Premium” to support catch-up work for pupils returning to school in March. The Recovery Premium will be paid to schools on the same basis as the existing Pupil Premium and is targeted at the same cohort of disadvantaged pupils.

At the same time, £200m of funding was made available for secondary schools to run summer school programmes. An additional £200 million was earmarked to fund an expansion of the National Tutoring Programme and additional support for post-16 and language development in the early years.

How the lockdown has impacted learning

The Sutton Trust and EFF have published detailed research on the impact of the lockdowns on different groups of children’s learning.

For Year 2 pupils, the research found that the overall performance in both reading and mathematics in autumn 2020 was two months less progress than the results from 2017's Year 2 pupils. There is also a gap of around seven months' learning between the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and non-disadvantaged pupils for reading and maths.

The Most Effective Use of the Recovery Premium

In a statement, Sir Peter Lampl, the founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust, said: "It's particularly welcome to see the government take-up our recommendation to increase the pupil premium through the Recovery Premium in the next school year. This will allow schools to target resources directly at disadvantaged pupils, who we know are most likely to have lost out."

Schools can use the Recovery Premium in any ways they feel will benefit their pupils the most. It is clear from the EFF and Sutton Trust research that much of the focus should be on reading and mathematics at the primary level, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.

The EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit suggests that the one-to-one and small group tuition can lead to learning gains of around five months. Focusing on small-group tuition for short regular sessions has proved to be the most cost-effective and impactful method.

How Teaching Personnel can help

Teaching Personnel is working with schools to create a flexible response to their catch-up and recovery needs. Our workforce of teachers, teaching assistants, and trained tutors can match your catch-up priorities and the needs of your pupils. Find out more