Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium: guide for schools
How much funding schools receive, and advice on how to spend it.
Applies to England
The literacy and numeracy catch-up premium gives state-funded schools, including special schools and alternative provision settings, additional funding to support year 7 pupils who did not achieve the expected standard in reading or maths at the end of key stage 2 (KS2).
Allocations for the 2019 to 2020 financial year
In 2019 to 2020, we are allocating funding to schools on the basis that they receive the same overall amount of year 7 catch-up premium funding they received in 2018 to 2019. It will be adjusted to reflect the percentage change in the size of their year 7 cohort, based on the October 2019 census.
Access the year 7 catch-up premium funding allocations and conditions of grant for the 2019 to 2020 financial year.
Payments
Local authority maintained schools (including special schools and PRUs)
Local authority maintained schools do not receive funding directly from DfE. We give your year 7 catch-up premium funding to your local authority and they pass it on to you.
We pay local authorities on 28 February 2020.
Academies and free schools (including special and alternative provision)
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) pays academies and free schools their year 7 catch-up premium funding directly.
We pay academies on 2 March 2020.
How to use the year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium
You should identify pupils who need extra support from the year 7 catch-up premium, so you can decide the best way to use the funding.
From late July, secondary schools can use the question level analysis function (QLA) in the Analyse School Performance (ASP) service to identify specific areas to focus on with new year 7s who haven’t reached the expected standard in key stage 2 tests.
QLA gives a breakdown of individual pupils’ performance in each question and element of the three KS2 tests:
- mathematics
- reading
- grammar, punctuation and spelling
You should only select programmes and approaches that you know are effective. For example, you could use the funding to pay for:
- individual tuition
- intensive small-group tuition
- external services and materials
- summer schools that help students catch up over a short period of time
You can find examples of effective approaches and programmes in our summary of research into literacy and numeracy catch-up strategies.
Accountability
You must publish details of how you spend your year 7 catch-up premium funding on your website.
Guidance on what specific information you need to publish on your website is available.
Ofsted inspectors currently consider how your school is using the premium.
Updates to this page
Last updated 25 February 2020 + show all updates
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We have updated allocations information for the 2019 to 2020 financial year. We have also added a link to the conditions of grant and published allocations for 2019 to 2020.
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We have updated this page with details of the year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up grant for the 2018 to 2019 financial year.
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The updated 'Literacy and numeracy catch-up strategies' is now available.
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Updated with information on allocations for the financial year 2017 to 2018.
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Added links to the allocations and conditions of grant for the 2016 to 2017 academic year.
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Updated with information on allocations for the financial year 2016 to 2017.
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Added a link to year 7 catch-up premium funding allocations for the financial year 2015 to 2016.
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Updated with information on catch-up premium allocations and payments for the financial year 2015 to 2016.
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Added information about funding allocations for 2014 to 2015.
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First published.