Looking back on lockdown
Francesca Park is the principal teacher at West Primary in Paisley. She has 20 years in the profession and believes teaching as changed forever as a result of the pandemic.
She said:“This time last year a teaching career that I have loved for 20 years ceased to be the same overnight. My job in which verbal interaction was always key suddenly relied on my not-soconfident ICT skills. There was frustration at the inequality of children not being able to engage because of lack of access to technology.
“At first, I missed the buzz you get from whole-school events and the feeling of togetherness with parents, staff and pupils throughout the entire school.
“We had more appreciation of making every minute the children are in school count and more confidence to use professional judgement to decide what is really important for your class – outdoor play even for P7 pupils!”
“We developed a whole new set of skills with a much easier and more immediate way of engaging with parents via the online learning platform.”
West Primary was used as a hub for the children of key workers meaning Francesca was working with new children and staff.
She said:“I’ve supported children that I didn’t previously know and worked in a team with different school staff and learned lots along the way.
“The necessity to find a new way of supporting transition for my P7 pupils to high school led to a strengthened relationship between P7 staff, Castlehead staff and Home Link. We developed resources that we will continue to use.
“In terms of what I would change, I did everything to the best of my ability at the time. However, with my improved ICT knowledge and understanding of how the children respond to the online tasks, I can say that I would design and schedule almost every piece of work more effectively now.
“I know that I will integrate more technology into my teaching and I’m sure the next generation of teachers will see digital learning as a vital part of their teaching. I will continue to use the online platform as a quick and easy means to engage with parents.
“After the superb work from our support staff during lockdown, I hope they will feel more valued and there will be a continued team approach of teaching and non-teaching staff bringing all their different strengths together to best support the learners.
“I hope in future we can focus on the experiences that we gained rather than lament the things that we missed out on.
“Also, that we stay healthy and in school and get a summer holiday at home or abroad in the sunshine!” Lauren Stewart is a Primary 5 teacher at West Primary in Paisley. She believes the first lockdown helped create‘a real sense of camaraderie’among staff, pupils and their families.
She said:“As a school we have come together to truly support our staff, pupils and their families. There is a real sense of community and camaraderie.
“We discovered so much during the first lockdown. It was a massive learning experience, and we were proactive and reactive to the changing situation and the needs of our learners and their families.
“We have become skilled with using new technology and online communication. Staff, children and their families are now proficient in using these tools and I think we will see a permanent move to communicating and working in this way.” Rhona Campbell teaches P6 pupils at West Primary in Paisley. She said:“One of the biggest positives of lockdown has been that most children missed school and were glad to be back in school learning with their friends and teacher.
“Parents have realised what an important and valuable job teachers do.
“If I could go back in time and do something differently, I think that both staff and pupils could have been better prepared for using an online platform for digital learning. Perhaps if we had been regularly using it previously for homework tasks then we would all have been accessing it more confidently.
“I certainly felt better prepared for online learning this lockdown due to my prior experiences and I think the children were more aware of teacher expectations too.
“I think we should continue to use a digital platform as part of our teaching and learning experiences in school.
“My hopes for the future are that we don’t find ourselves in a lockdown situation again in the near future, that children continue to appreciate their learning in school with their peers, and that people continue to appreciate the valuable job that teachers do on a daily basis.”
We have become more skilled with new technology and online communication