Learning during school lockdown
A MONTH ago schools were still open as normal, despite increasing concerns about the coronavirus outbreak.
Many pupils had returned from half term skiing trips in Northern Italy and concern was growing around the increasing number of confirmed cases.
“Then it rather suddenly went from there to ‘hang on a minute, this is a real problem’, At that point schools started to get really jumpy,” said Sean Maher, Headteacher at Richard Challoner School in Kingston.
The school had an early case of a student who had come back from Italy and whose step-brother had been diagnosed with the virus.
A week later a pupil showed up with symptoms in the medical room, prompting the school to temporarily close for a deep clean.
“Schools had been given very little advice from the Department for Education, there was very little coming through,” said Mr Maher.
“I think that was a real frustration for us as headteachers at the beginning of all this. We were being given very little advice or guidance on what to do or how to respond, what the cleaning procedures should be if you have a suspected case.
“When we rang NHS 111, we couldn’t get anyone to make a decision. Noone wanted to nail their opinion to a mast. It was very much along the lines of ‘well, one of the things you could do is this, but it has to be the headteacher’s decision’.”
When the school reopened the following week, stronger socialdistancing advice was being put out by the government.
Richard Challoner, along with a number of schools across Kingston noticed a drop in attendance as parents became increasingly worried.
“Even staff were beginning to say that ‘it’s not safe to be in school like this’. They were very good and carried on, but then we started to have a few staff having to self-isolate. Then we started having to do super-covers because we had so many teachers off. This means putting 100 people in a hall together on exam tables and setting them work,” explained Mr Maher. When it was announced that schools would be closing that Friday (March 20) Mr Maher took the step to close Richard Challoner early to protect students and plan for the difficult weeks ahead. On the Thursday and Friday staff came in to work on a home-learning timetable that would be up and running on the school’s website for the following Monday and would cover four weeks’ worth of work, two weeks either side of Easter. “We took the approach right from the very beginning that it couldn’t be school at home,” said Mr Maher. “Parents can’t teach like teachers and most children aren’t resilient enough to be good self-learners. They need direction and help, particularly our most vulnerable children. “They are the ones who are going to find it hardest to self-learn. We were really anxious, and still are, about that gap that’s going to grow between the haves and the have-nots. “In my house, I’ve got three children, I’m a teacher, my wife is a teacher, they are staying in good routines. But if you are in a household that perhaps doesn’t value education quite so much, or perhaps you don’t have the resource or the background to help your children with that. That gap is going to increase, I think.
“We also took the view that even though we wanted them to continue doing academic stuff, it was really important also that we put stuff together for them to exercise, to support their mental well-being and spend time as a family. It was a really holistic view of how we were going to do it.
“What we have said to staff at this initial stage, is we don’t want them to do anything where the children were going to be doing new material. It should be about reinforcing and deepening previous stuff, because they have actually learnt that stuff already, so should be able to take it further on their own and easier than if we start introducing new topics and ideas.”
Mr Maher says most of the other Kingston schools have now copied their approach, and while staff were happy to volunteer to come in during lockdown, the most pupils they had on any one day was three.
“We had a system where parents could book children in so we would know if they were coming in. Then that dwindled and last week on Thursday and Friday we had none at all. We’ve got none this week and none next week.”
Mr Maher said he thinks this is because most secondary school children are capable of being at home on their own.
But for more vulnerable children the school has developed a list of families it is contacting on a regular basis through phone calls, and is even setting up a station in school where parents can drop off food for the most vulnerable families and the local foodbank.
On school days all pupils are encouraged to get out of bed at a reasonable time, have breakfast and get dressed before doing half an hour of reading and then some exercise.
Then they are encouraged to do two sessions of academic work before taking a break, then another two academic sessions.
In the afternoons they are told to focus on personal projects. The school has put together a list of things that pupils might want to do or learn about ranging from cooking to animation.
Students are encouraged to share what they are doing, with pictures uploaded on the school’s website to celebrate their achievements.
But with the Easter holidays now underway, they have been specifically told not to do any academic work.
“You need to rest and unwind,” said Mr Maher.
“There is an unusual term ahead and we need you to be in a good place to be able to cope with the demands of however that term is going to look like.”
But Mr Maher hopes that the coronavirus crisis will also provide an opportunity for schools to pause and focus on pupils’ mental health.
“There mustn’t be a jump back into the accountability regime, Ofsted, league tables, all that sort of thing, as if nothing has ever happened,” he said.
“I think there is a real opportunity to re-imagine how we approach education and put happiness, well-being, love at the heart of that.
“It’s going to take us a long time to unpick where the children are and what kind of support they need. Whether that’s mental health support, or identifying what gaps have developed in their learning. It will take us a while to learn how to adapt for next year’s exams for the current Year 10s and Year 12s who have missed out on so much.”
Coronavirus has presented a number of challenges for teachers, but Mr Maher says he has been “humbled” by the dedication of staff and parents.
“By the time we broke up and went into lockdown, I was really emotionally exhausted at that point.
“We were making so many tough decisions so quickly and I felt really knocked for six a bit emotionally,” he said. “So actually having the two weeks we have just had where we have got into a rhythm of home learning has been important. If we had stayed in school any longer you would have seen people having breakdowns.”