Back to school for Denton MP as he sees impact of DfE 'Catch-up Funding'

Denton MP Andrew Gwynne went back to school last week as he checked out how the Department For Education’s Catch Up Funding was being used to get year 7’s ready for the new school year.

The DfE made £1billion extra funding available to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on young people.

At Denton Community College [DCC], they’d received £80,000 and used it to fund a two week provision for 50% of the new year 7 cohort starting in September.

More than 200 young people got their first taste of secondary school life with a range of lessons including the traditional Maths, English and Science, through to the more unusual such as photography and textiles.

Gwynne MP, who attended DCC’s predecessor, Edgerton Park Arts College, got stuck in with various tasks set for the students, including designing their own t-shirt and solving a crime using forensic techniques.

He said that the funding was vital in bridging the gap that had been created by the pandemic.

“It’s brilliant isn’t it because we know that children right across Tameside have missed out on pretty much a whole year of schooling and when you’re 11 years old that such a large amount of your life so it’s really important that we have this catch up funding so that they can try and do what it says on the tin - catch up.

“Just walking around Denton Community College today it’s always great to be here anyway but to see kids from primary schools across Tameside that are going to be coming to DCC in September having fun but learning at the same time is great.

“It isn’t just about catch up these kids are getting to know each other, they’re coming from all different parts of the borough and hopefully by September they’ll have made friends.

“It takes that huge leap from primary to secondary school away because you’ll already know people from this catchup, learning over the summer.”

Andrew says that the extra funding will open up new possibilities for students with the purchasing of new equipment.

“We’ve seen equipment in textiles, in science and in photography that has been purchased with this funding and that has opened up so many opportunities to the children which they wouldn’t have had.

“I’m a big supporter in ensuring that kids have all the opportunities they can to succeed. The challenge of educationalists is to find out what somebodies good at and allow them to light that spark and develop, to nurture them to be the best.

“If this funding has helped to achieve some of that at the college, then that’s brilliant because we will have the scientist of tomorrow coming through this school, we will have the designers of tomorrow coming through and the photographers coming through this school.”

As well as 200 pupils, numerous staff were also in school, sacrificing some of their own summer holidays to help students catch up.

Hayley Duffy, Head of Community at DCC, explained how they’d allocated the money.

She said: “The money’s been spent on lots of resources that we want to inspire the young people to go on and choose those subjects at GCSE and vocational courses.

“The money has also been used for catering facilities so we’ve provided hot meals for the two weeks with our Robinsons catering team and the staff and support staff who have been amazing to give up their time to plan the activities.

“We’ve been able to buy 15 new cameras which will be used at Key stage 4. We’ve also been able to buy a new printing screen facilities and technology equipment, catering equipment.”

Ms Duffy also said that they’re looking forward to welcoming the new students on a full time basis from September.

“I’ve ran a similar programme for the past 10 years since we’ve been on this site and the children and their parents and carers always come in the first few days always very nervous and anxious but especially with the pandemic and lockdowns it will have had an effect on the wellbeing of young people.

“It’s paramount that we ensure that their transition is as smooth as possible, we’re here to ease those anxieties, build their confidence and develop their resilience, that’s all about meeting the staff, the students and meeting new friends so that they’ve got a fresh start and a good start in September.

“I was really pleased that restrictions were lifted, we have sanitisation stations in place to ensure that everyone is safe but its lovely to be able to see the lovely smiling faces of the staff , of the year 6 students and also our amazing student ambassadors who are leading them around and its running smoothly with all their help.”

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