COVID-19 catch-up vs pupil premium: guide to effective spending

Find out how to maximise the impact of any overlap between your pupil premium and any unspent coronavirus catch-up premium. Use our template to identify compatible needs among eligible pupils, and see examples of how other schools used both types of funding.

Last reviewed on 6 May 2022
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 42678
Contents
  1. Use our template to conduct a thorough needs assessment  
  2. Compare your priorities for both types of funding  
  3. The more you can put into actual teaching, the better
  4. Streamline all interventions via 1 designated member of staff 
  5. Target and survey transition year pupils 
  6. See how schools spent both types of funding 

Use our template to conduct a thorough needs assessment  

Your spending will have the biggest impact if it’s targeted at the pupils who are most in need. 

Your coronavirus catch-up funding is for helping pupils to catch up on missed learning, especially ‘disadvantaged’ pupils.

This isn’t only pupils eligible for the pupil premium grant (PPG). In fact, if those pupils were in school during national lockdowns, they may have benefited from small-group in-person teaching. Just because they’re eligible for the PPG doesn’t mean they’ll have fallen behind. 

But some needs of pupils disadvantaged by coronavirus and pupils eligible for the PPG may overlap, and can therefore be addressed by the same interventions. We've included some examples in this Venn diagram to help you visualise this.

pupil premium COVID catch up venn diagram

 

 

To identify where you can address the needs of both pupil groups with the same spending, look

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