HUNTINGTON SCHOOL’S ACT PROGRAMME

ENSURING STUDENTS THRIVE WHEN THEY RETURN TO SCHOOL

‘Sustained support will be needed to help disadvantaged pupils catch up. It is highly likely that the gap
will have widened when pupils return to school, even if the strongest possible mitigatory steps are put
in place. Catch-up provision, including assessment of lost learning and targeted support, will be
essential. However, it is unlikely that a single catch-up strategy will be sufficient to compensate for lost
learning due to school closures. There is a risk that high levels of absence after schools formally reopen
poses a particular risk for disadvantaged pupils.’ EEF

‘The identification of what pupils do/don’t know will be an important focus. We need to think about the
approach that best suits the age of the pupils and the nature of the subject, while being mindful of the
individual and cumulative picture for pupils. In many cases, teachers would be well advised to use low-
stakes quizzes, small group conversations and good old Q&A to find out what pupils do/don’t know. The
sense of urgency is understandable but that needn’t translate into high stakes for pupils.’ ASCL
Curriculum and Inspection Specialist Stephen Rollett

Our catch-up programme has three simple sections: Attendance – Curriculum – Time. There is a logic to
the acronym, in that we need to ensure students Attend our lessons during which we deliver the
Curriculum [content-assessment-pedagogy]; we will need extra Time for Year 11s and 13s to cover the
content required for their summer 2021 examinations, and for those in main school who have the
largest learning gaps to catch up.
ATTENDANCE
What? Why? How & when? Hurdles? Lead person
A ATTENDANCE: Implement an attendance Without students in
1 intervention that concentrates upon classrooms they cannot
getting our most reluctant students into catch up.
school when we reopen in September.
CURRICULUM
What? Why? How & when? Hurdles? Lead person
C1 WHAT MATTERS: To pare down the If we can pare down
subject specific curriculum at each Key the curriculum, we can
Stage to prioritise the main threshold reduce the impact of
concepts/core knowledge/particular lost learning and catch
things students need to know or be able up quicker.
to do fluently, subject-by-subject, to
make progress.
C2 GAPS: To begin September teaching the Learning gaps will
stripped back (see C1 above) standard appear as we teach,
SoL for the year in question, but use and are best addressed
high-quality formative assessment in real time. We cannot
practice, in all lessons, to check students’ afford to spend time on
learning, and then tweak our teaching in some kind of
response to what we learn from the ineffective diagnostic
formative assessments in real time. when we need to crack
on with teaching.
C3 ICT TRAINING: Invest in staff training so It is likely that we will
teachers have a minimum level of still be using remote
competency to allow effective remote learning. If we are not
learning. fully open in
September, we will
need to deliver a
blended learning
programme.
C4 ICT CONNECTIVITY: Invest in ICT Issues around
connectivity and ensure access to connectivity and access
hardware for staff and students. to suitable hardware
still prevent the
smooth delivery of
remote learning.
CURRICULUM
What? Why? How & when? Hurdles? Lead person
C5 STUDENT BEHAVIOUR: To continue to Teacher-student
develop and enhance our behaviour contact time is too
policy to ensure no lessons are disrupted precious for it to be
by low-level poor behaviour. disrupted by poor
student behaviour.
TIME
What? Why? How & when? Hurdles? Lead person
T1 YEAR 11: To provide Year 11 compulsory We have to find a way
sixth lesson Tuesdays to Friday over a of providing more
fortnight for every GCSE/Level 2 teacher-student contact
qualification, providing every subject with time to fill the content
an additional period of contact time a gaps so that we can
fortnight. cover the full GCSE
specifications.
T2 SIXTH FORM: Suspend the sixth form PDP We need to find time
programme to have a two-hour supervised for Year 13 to cover
study period in the first term for Years 12 missed content and
and 13 – work set by subject staff to Year 12 to fill any
enable students to cover missed content. knowledge gaps due to
their truncated GCSE
courses.
T3 THE LEFT BEHIND: Pockets of time such as There will be a small
before school, lunchtimes, after school, number of students
core PE etc., to be used to deliver targeted who really have been
support for selected students that have significantly affected by
the greatest gaps in their learning. the break in schooling
and who need
extraordinary
intervention.
T4 SATURDAY CLUB: To open the school on Students increasingly
Saturday mornings to provide the need access to facilities
resources for students to work and a supervised open
independently. access arrangement on
Saturday mornings
might just help.