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Brilliant Learning

Gwen Sinnott & Steve Preston: Education Research

When we heard that again this year that Statutory Assessment for Primary Schools was cancelled our hearts sank at the REU. Another year without the rich analysis of school performance we were used to providing.

Rethink?

We had time to think and people to talk to, standing back from the end of Key Stage statutory collections and public accountability meant we had time to re-focus our support and look at how we could use our skills to support schools through this difficult time.

A lot of schools still wanted a contextual analysis of internal assessment and testing.  With schools taking different directions, we developed a flexible offer around this so that schools could use an REU tool to get a quick automated analysis of any year group assessments, either test or TA.  For schools who sent the data to us we have been able to provide a more detailed analysis.  Working with our subject consultants we were also able to produce a tool to monitor the Maths National Ready to Progress criteria across the school.

A new initiative this year was to provide a set of data surgeries, where schools could book a 1-1 session with the team and discuss any assessment data management, or analysis questions they had.  We found this particularly interesting and discussions were wide ranging, from capturing writing assessment to extending contextual data.

We want to continue a reflective and dynamic approach to the services we offer.  Some of the things we have learnt this year will continue as we move forward.  Examples are:

  • Review the standard REU package for next year to be more focused and flexible to respond to varied school needs.
  • Individual 1-1 school specific support
  • Continued development of tools to support schools internally.
  • Continue to provide regular updated lists of children in your school known to Social Care in Wandsworth
  • Introduce more virtual and e-Training and guidance.
  • Some virtual meetings and consultation with the Primary Data Steering Group and other forums to steer our work

Exploring national research

The unusual year has also meant we have spent time exploring other types of analysis, keeping a close eye on the work that other education research organisations have been carrying out. For example, we have drawn together findings on the link between KS4 and KS5 outcomes on longer term employment outcomes – and how this differs by deprivation, gender and ethnicity. For example, disadvantaged students are less likely to choose higher earning academic routes, even when controlling for prior attainment.

We’ve also been seeing how attainment gaps have been changing during the lockdown period, and how the impact varies for different cohorts (e.g. disadvantaged) and between subjects. For example, Hodder have recently released a white paper exploring attainment gaps from their optional literacy and maths assessments: https://www.risingstars-uk.com/media/Rising-Stars/Assessment/Whitepapers/RSA_Effects_of_disruption_Summer_Aug_2021.pdf

Please get in touch if you want to find out more about any of this analysis.

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Empowering Professionals

Tracy Dohel, Ernest Bevin College: Talks HR

Ernest Bevin College welcomed Ms Tracy Dohel as their newly appointed Principal at the beginning of January 2021. However, it was far from a normal start for this highly experienced headteacher, as the majority of EBC staff and students were working from home due to the lockdown. 

Tracy was impressed by the way staff and students had adapted to the new challenges of online learning, whilst still maintaining the momentum of school improvement. This success was a credit to the commitment and dedication of all the EBC staff in making the transition to remote learning possible.

Becoming the new Principal of a large college is a challenge at the best of times, but doing this during a global pandemic is highly commendable! It was vital then that Tracy was able to access the professional HR support she needed, to work with her and the senior leadership team.

Thankfully, the Wandsworth Schools HR Service were already established HR partners with EBC, so were able to provide the experienced professional HR support and continuity needed to help manage the wide variety of HR issues that arise within schools. 

With regards accessing HR support, what would you say were the key adjustments, if any, when you became Principal at EBC?

In terms of HR support, one of the trickier aspects when I joined EBC, apart from the fact that we were still in lockdown, with a skeleton staff and few students in the College, was the fact that I was so used to having HR services provided as part of an academy, with specialist issues outsourced to Babcock 4S, now Strictly Education, when required. A MAT I worked for had their own central in-house HR team, the same as most of the bigger academy trusts, so there were always ‘go to people’ for advice. When I joined EBC, it took me about a month to familiarise and adjust to the Wandsworth HR provision. 

Was the support available from Wandsworth HR when you arrived at EBC?

Yes, once I realised that was where I was supposed to go to for HR support. I had already spoken to Brendan Ryan by phone whilst I was in my previous headship. Brendan was able to help me with a HR issue I had when joining the College, which was immediately dealt with. In fact, that is one thing I will say, the swiftness in terms of the response received from Wandsworth HR has been quite incredible.

The other noticeable thing for me, because I do have a lot of experience working with HR, is the level of consistency in terms of their messaging. Although you can be mistaken for thinking that all aspects of HR is law, there can be some opinions about how you would approach a particular matter. Although Brendan, Lesley and Harwinder might have nuanced opinions about certain issues, the level of consistency between them is really impressive!

So, when you need advice about an HR issue, who are your main contact/s?

It can depend on which time of the day. Brendan will usually get calls early morning, sometimes at 7.00am, because I know he is up and about and will answer. I have never actually met Brendan, although I have invited him to come along to the College. I have met Lesley and Harwinder. I have contacted Lesley at the other end of the day, even at 8.00pm on a Friday night and she has answered. Both Brendan and Lesley have been a constant source of valuable support, which has inspired me with a lot of confidence in what I have to do. The breadth of experience within the Wandsworth HR team really does shine through, especially when you feel you encounter an issue, they are able to help to get things back on track for you. They basically know Wandsworth inside out and the schools, so you are reaping the benefits of their wealth of experience, which is always readily available. Given my experience of working with other HR teams who are able to turn things around, Wandsworth HR team do it really quickly!

Wandsworth HR also have a way of getting the best from you, by coaching you through the different HR issues and asking what you want to do? What do you think would be best? What do you think the consequences might be of a certain action? How might the staff react to that? If there is any doubt, they are always able to provide answers! In addition, the team have also supported the College by attending full governing body meetings, late into the evenings, offering an expert perspective as well as being able to answer more in-depth questions. The Wandsworth HR documentation is also available online and is an extremely useful source of advice and guidance. 

Are there any areas of support that you think Wandsworth HR could improve on?

Whilst I can give constructive criticism, I would be hard pressed to offer anything regarding them. I have been in touch with the interim head who was here at EBC before me and when I told her how much support I had received she was overwhelmed and extremely impressed, so no I can’t think of any areas for improvement at this point.

How would you summarise the support received from the Wandsworth HR Team?

In spite of all the current pressures facing heads and schools in Wandsworth, with all the different HR issues, time pressures and staffing shortages, Brendan and his team are always on hand to provide the support you need at the time you need it.

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Intelligent Operations

Murat Boyayanlar: Challenge of Facilities Management during the pandemic

The Covid 19 lockdown forced the closure of most of our property portfolio, reducing the need for all but essential maintenance across our sites. We had to adapt our service as lockdown progressed so our FM teams and contractors were tasked with making our core sites covid secure, whilst striving to maintain our pre planned maintenance schedules. Supporting the urgent need within the community for Covid19 testing, we set up Covid LFT test centres, and supported mobile testing units at Wandsworth, by providing the staff to run the sites.

As we are now beginning to open up and get back to some form of normality, we are faced with new challenges ahead.

The construction leadership council has recently warned that cement, some electrical components, timber, steel, and paints are all in short supply, citing “unprecedented levels of demand” that are set to continue “for the foreseeable future”. The present material supply problems stem from several factors, the most notable being that construction industry projects have surged since lockdown began easing, leading to high demand for materials. 

Furthermore, with demand increasing across the globe and the UK importing many of its raw materials, not only is demand outstripping supply but prices of materials are also rising. The ONS is projecting a rise in material prices, with certain materials, such as timber, expected to more than double during the year.

Smart School Services

Facilities Management Services advise that schools plan for the short, medium, and long term.

This is where our primary focus is on ensuring compliance and not profit making, as we strive to ensure best value. We are dedicated to supporting the schools manage their Reactive, Planned, Preventative, & Remedial Maintenance works.

Sustainability, reducing energy consumption, and becoming net zero carbon by 2030, is at the forefront of the Councils agenda. We can assist schools by offering advice and information about energy management and sustainable options to reduce carbon emissions. 

We have planned major projects towards achieving net zero carbon in our operational buildings, and we are carrying out energy audits in schools. Our team can also help with funding applications for de-carbonisation projects.

If you would like to know more about our FM Services, please book a Head to Head meeting.

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Brilliant Learning

Keisha Bellingy: Virtual work experience

The pandemic has altered the way we have all worked over the last year. This impact will continue as we all try to adapt to different ways of working.

Annually, the BEST Team (Business and Education Succeeding Together) supports approximately 1600 young people to access work experience. This opportunity disappeared last year, and future programmes will be shaped by the changes in the workplace. The BEST Team is part of Lifelong Learning and located in the Children’s Services Department.

A work experience placement is usually the first interaction that a young person has with the world of work and the BEST Team is determined that the service should continue for many years to come. The service is in its 28th year!

Wandsworth BEST has now delivered several virtual work experience workshops. The first virtual work experience workshop took place at the beginning of December 2020 and involved a group of students from St Francis Xavier College.

Simon Pollen from the council’s HR Team is pictured above delivering a session on how to construct the perfect CV!

It was a great success, and this was down to the commitment of all involved – students, tutors, several staff within the council and some highly committed local business and employers. The week was packed with different activities and talks from Fulham Football Club, South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, Wandsworth Borough Council, RAPP (marketing and communications company), Barclays UK LifeSkills, Iqualtech (electronics), NOW TV and Sainsburys.

There are a lot of benefits to the students with virtual work experience and this includes the opportunity for students to speak to employers from a wide range of industries who also may not be based locally. It also boosts their confidence with the opportunity to ask the employers questions in real time.

The benefits to schools include spending a lot less time on arranging placements and using the experience to meet Gatsby benchmark 5 which is ‘encounters with employers and employees’.

If you are interested in being involved in future work experience activities or to find out more about the service, book a Head to Head below.

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Brilliant Learning

Theodora Theodoratou: Towards a future of collective healing

As we move towards the possibility of social distancing restrictions lessening and the prospect of  a return to “normal”, we are taking a moment here at the Schools and Community Psychology Service to think about and question ‘What does return to normal look, sound and feel like??‘.  

We cannot go back in time and change how things have been, but we can influence the future in ways that do not feel regressive and that inspire us to dream ahead and develop. So, what is the story of our future?

We might start this by asking ourselves:

  • Does everything need to go back to how it was?
  • What have we learned from the past year?
  • What continues to work?
  • What new ways of doing and of being did we experience, and can these continue going forward?
  • How can we as a collective find the energy to build our resilience and create a vision for the future? 

Building individual resilience- a new item on the to-do list? 

We have all been bombarded by messages to turn this whole experience to one of growth and an opportunity to build resilience. We feel the pressure to create something purposeful when events feel out of our control……how can it be built without adding to the ever-growing list of tasks on the school development plan? 

Resilience is dynamic. It can change across time, context and situation and individual resilience depends on the resilience in other parts of the system (Masten, 2015). However, school leadership teams do not have to feel alone or lost in their efforts to help pupils, families and staff regain their strength. The factors that support the process of resilience for children include: 

  • A sense of belonging 
  • Strong relationships
  • Agency 
  • High expectations 
  • The opportunity to participate as valued members of the community 

In line with these factors the Schools and Community Psychology Service (SCPS) has helped to promote pupils’ participation in their community through questionnaires at various points during the pandemic. These have explored how children and young people have felt throughout different parts of the pandemic and come up with strategies from what the pupils themselves have shared. 

“I just wanted to feedback on the surveys – I have been through them individually and it has been really fascinating. There were only a small number of children in each year group who flagged concerns, but the majority of those were children who would have slipped under the radar otherwise. It has been a really useful exercise and we now know which children to target the interventions to. Thank you so much for your expertise in this, the questions were spot on in pointing out the children who need extra support” (Feedback from primary school HT)

We have also thought with our schools about how to promote a sense of belonging with the help of the Top Ten Tips poster. The shift in practice and the strategies that come when we give voice to our children and young people are always the most relevant. Examples of strategies that pupils and young people inspired our schools to implement include:

  • Playground zones with group activities that promote friendships whilst maintaining social distancing and friendship benches
  • Development of participation strategy within a specialist provision with a particular focus on those pupils who present with social/communication difficulties alongside other physical and sensory needs. 
  • A secondary school reflected on the limited opportunities children with SEND get to be included in group work and group projects and worked with the EP to think about how different departments could improve in including differentiation as part of their group work planning. 

Building community resilience- it’s all about coming together to think

Here at the Schools and Community Psychology Service, we are in awe of how our schools have remained strong and determined during the pandemic, showing incredible stamina and focus on whole community well-being when it mattered the most. We supported school leadership teams through ‘Wellbeing for Return conversations’, the development of resources for creating resilient classrooms and ELSA check-ins. Throughout the pandemic the SCPS ran free sessions for school senior leaders, SEMH leads and SENCOs. Each session focussed on one of the principles for adjustment as well as staff, parents and pupil wellbeing. It was a great way to bring schools together to exchange ideas and provide support to each other. 

We also created resources for parents and helped schools think about how to best support parents in their community. Some schools used their Educational Psychologists (EPs) to offer parents ‘Space to Talk’ and help them think about how to support the learning and wellbeing of their children whilst juggling the challenges of home schooling and work.  

Schools at the heart of community recovery

Community recovery is a long, slow process. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Despite the challenges, attention to their most vulnerable members of our community was at the centre of our work with schools.  And now it’s time to take a step back, listen to the stories of surviving and focus on the community as a whole and this starts with you thinking about and creating your own story for the future. 

Why? 

When people go through challenges or trauma, they are more likely to recover when they are living in supportive and validating communities. Successful community recovery comes from the vision, dreams, hopes and challenges of community themselves. It is about community choosing what their future looks like, and then acting on it with the support of services. It is about community recovery and it is more than that — it is COMMUNITY LED RECOVERY. 

There are a number of EP led initiatives that have provided support before and during phases of the pandemic that would also support our school communities with rebuilding the future too. Some examples include: 

  • Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope (PATH) – A tool to support planning and problem solving for individuals, teams and organisations. ​It is a way for a group of people, who share a common problem situation to align their purpose, understanding and actions and visualise a journey towards a positive and possible future.
  • SEMH audit – A process to help schools with identifying strengths and areas for further development in relation to whole organisation emotional wellbeing and mental health
  • Reflective Space for teachers – The Reflecting Team approach (Andersen, 1987), has been adapted to offer a unique opportunity to staff to bring an issue to a group of colleagues for group reflection. With the help of group thinking and positive feedback, staff are provided with the time and space to consider a variety of new ideas and perspectives for challenging situations. 

Community recovery requires local knowledge and the belief that individuals and families are inherently resilient and able to recover. The Schools and Community Psychology service comes from a solution focussed and strengths based consultation model that recognises the expertise of the school communities that have already contained our families, day in and day out for the last 15 months and understand their strengths as well as ongoing needs. With our understanding of risk and protective factors as well as the steps towards collective recovery, we will continue to offer our support to schools in order to create stories of growth and hope together. 

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Intelligent Operations

Daren Marsh: Harnessing technology post-lockdown

With students and teachers back in the classroom the temptation may be to go back to how our classrooms were before the pandemic. However, the lockdowns, bubbles and online learning has left a legacy and a very real opportunity to move our classes and teaching forward and harness all the technology that has flooded our school communities over the last year. Schools have found that they have more devices than ever before. The DfE, Wandsworth Local Authority, Power to Connect and private donations have increased the number of connected devices in our schools and our learners’ homes. With this influx of technology comes the need to review and assess the infrastructure we have in our schools, to maximise the benefit of these additional devices and the increased traffic on our wireless networks. The following points should be explored by schools to ensure that they are confident and appropriately supported to be able to sustain the exciting technology and computing boom.

Keeping Connected

Your learners have eagerly come back to the classroom and have developed a whole new set of skills. Distance learning has allowed students to access more resources, more frequently from more places. This thirst for online research and independent study can be channelled through effective teaching, but like any organisation, schools are only as good as the tools they have to teach with. The increased use of streamed video clips is one example of additional pressure and stress on your wireless network. Wandsworth Schools ICT Support can visit your school, assess the infrastructure is appropriate for the increased number of devices and the increased amount of use on your network.

One to One Devices

With the increased number of devices returning to classrooms some schools have decided that certain groups are to be taught 1 to 1 with a device per pupil. Having hundreds of eager learners all surfing and researching in one place at once puts an enormous strain on the school’s wireless network. As a school you know which classrooms and which pupils are likely to receive the devices – but have you checked the strength and capability of the connection in these specific areas? The Wandsworth Schools ICT Support team is available to visit and test your school’s wireless access points to ensure the signal strength is capable of supporting the new fantastic hardware in all areas of your school and not leaving children and staff frustrated where devices cannot get online.

Collaborative Learning

With your new connected devices learners will be working together more – sharing ideas, presenting demonstrations and collaborating on documents. These social platforms will allow teachers to be creative in the classroom and with assessments, allowing students to relay back their ideas regardless of where they are in the school. For this exciting new way of learning to succeed and for your school to grasp the potential of children studying together with devices they intuitively understand, your school must have a robust, reliable and secure wireless network. Wandsworth Schools ICT Support can provide an extensive health check on your existing network. You will receive a comprehensive report detailing how and where improvements can be made to ensure your learners and staff can enjoy the full benefit of a fit for purpose wireless network.

Wireless Service

The Wandsworth Schools ICT Support team offer a fully managed Wireless Support Service.  From the initial survey, we will report on the current health of your existing network, make recommendations on improvements that can be made and where to invest your money to ensure that you have the best possible wireless network to meet your specific requirements.  We are able to offer a complete school wireless network refresh, helping you through the procurement process by obtaining quotations to guarantee high quality wireless hardware that is appropriate for your schools at excellent prices.  As a Local Authority team we are able to undercut our competitors and we have high quality expertise in the design, implementation and support of wireless networks.  Our dedicated team of ICT professionals are at the ready to ensure that any wireless issues you experience are covered and for complete peace of mind, we will help, advise and support you through every step of the process.

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Empowering Professionals

Selina McClure: Governance & Clerking in a Virtual World

The past year has been a steep learning curve with so much change.The Covid crisis has brought many challenges but there has been an upside. Virtual meetings are often better attended, timely and more focused; just more productive.  Boards and clerks adjusted quickly to virtual meetings last year, which was reflected in our annual governance survey.  We asked how boards adapted to the pandemic and how effective governors thought they had been. Here are some of the comments:

PROS

  • Timelier in terms of meetings that are more succinct when done virtually.
  • Much better attendance at meetings.
  • We were able to adapt well to online meetings and maintained very rapid responses to policy updates and any issues which needed prompt attention.

CONS

  • It is much harder to have a quick chat face-to-face about the more minor things.
  • Many people were hesitant to speak and as a result some issues are not widely enough explored… Business still gets covered, but with less input from some.
  • Some meetings especially with staff or with parents during discipline committees are better conducted face to face.

One of the main messages from the survey is that strong chairing & professional clerking are vital to the success of virtual (and any) meetings.

The Chair
Even the most experienced Chair needs additional skills in a virtual meeting. You need good questioning and summarising skills; techniques to make sure that there is good participation from all; you need to keep the meeting on track and manage over talkative participants. Hopefully, there will be no meetings as rowdy as the Hanworth Parish Council debacle, but you will need to manage dissent and set up the scene for heated debates. We are offering training in May on this subject – Check out our new Advanced Chairing Skills – ensuring effective governance in a virtual world session which is taking place on 18th May 2021.

The Professional Clerk
Successful governance, virtual or otherwise, depends on a good, professional clerk. We have a plethora of talent in our clerking team who offer a wealth of experience and knowledge to Governing Boards. Research shows that an effective clerk can make a substantial contribution to the efficiency of a governing board, enabling them to fulfil their roles more comprehensively and effectively.
Before the pandemic, clerks had to be within reasonable travelling distance of the schools they worked with. Now with the advantage of technology there is the potential for a highly professional stand-in clerk to always be available.

The Future – are virtual meetings here to stay?
In our annual governance survey, 80% of boards said that they would use a mixture of virtual meetings and face-to-face in the future.  As restrictions lift, it’s likely that boards will adopt a hybrid approach to meetings with some physical and some virtual.  Virtual meetings are accessible and also remove some of the barriers, such as time and travel, for people joining boards. So, if you have a vacancy then your pool of governors is also now much wider!

Smart School Services
If you would like to know more about our Professional Clerking Service, please book a Head to Head meeting.

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Intelligent Operations

Diana Stovell: Intro to Occupational Health

Most of us have experienced challenges during the Covid pandemic in relation to many issues including anxiety about the virus itself, missing social interactions with family and friends, feelings of isolation and the impact on how we work.

For some individuals their mental health has deteriorated during the last year due to Covid, so it’s important to not only recognise this in yourself and others and to consider what actions can be taken to improve mental wellbeing.

The MIND charity has done some amazing work, particularly over this year in relation to support and advise during the pandemic. Their webpage ‘Coping with mental health during Coronavirus’ gives great tips which we can all take on board in relation to improving our mental health including talking to people you trust, thinking about your routine,  thinking about your physical health, making a care box and much more. Why don’t you take a read and consider what small changes you could make in your life to support your health and wellbeing during the pandemic and beyond.

Also maintained school have 6 months free access to the Employee Assistance Programme, paid for from central Children’s Services Directorate.

Smart School Services

Occupational Health is committed to supporting staff in relation to their health and wellbeing. Our staff have a wealth of experience and knowledge in all aspects of health and the effect on work so we’re here to advice on how best to support an individual who may be experiencing difficulties.

If you would like to know more about our Health and Wellbeing services or the Employee Assistance Programme, please book a Head to Head meeting.

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ICT

Daren Marsh: Data Security threats to schools increase

This is the worrying message sent to schools in the past week from the Department for Education and the National Cyber Security Centre as reported in Schools Week – full article here

We have been very aware of the increased cyber threats and have worked very hard to ensure that school life is not disrupted by these criminal activities. So far our defences have been effective against a range of threats, particularly ransomware and (sorry have to be technical) Distributed Denial of Service attacks that the NCSC and DfE are warning against, but we will never rest easy or be complacent. In the past year, the increased number and range of devices that schools have access to has brought wonderful opportunities, but also leads to more potential avenues for hackers, malware and spyware to steal, corrupt or manipulate school data.

The Schools ICT Support team are very proactive against these threats and support the ‘defence in depth’ approach for schools that the NCSC recommend. The team protect school systems with multiple lines of defence, including firewalls, anti-virus and ransomware protection on workstations, servers and home use. In the background the team manage alerting and monitoring systems that raise alarms and drives early interventions. Recent additional layers of defence have included:

  • InterceptX that provides sophisticated protection for your data and ensures schools don’t suffer ransomware attacks and lockouts,
  • Meraki Mobile Device Management and Home Protect that provide improved security and safety for the range of devices that staff and pupils take home.
  • Mail Protect and Webscreen provide email and web filtering, that is managed and configured to keep staff and children safe online. 

Following the DfE alert sent to schools, governors may want to know more about how the school is protected and in recent school data protection meetings we have shared the document linked here School cyber security questions for governors – NCSC.GOV.UK which helps governors to discuss the issues and seek assurance on meeting their responsibilities.

If you would like to know more about our ICT Support and Data Protection services, please book a Head to Head meeting.

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TEACHING

Janet Goring: supporting SEND pupils

The second lockdown enabled us to apply what we learnt collectively as a team from Lockdown 1, although we didn’t get the same notice period to get appropriate resources to pupils to take home to facilitate their learning. 

Personalising the Approach to learning

“Pupils and parents have responded positively to the lessons and parents listening in have been able to work on key areas with the children.”

LNSS Teacher

Like all SEND practitioners, our teaching starts with the pupil, assessing their needs and working with them to find the best approach to maximise learning. Remote learning magnified the need for personalising the approach as not only is each student different in terms of the learning, but there were a number of other considerations to factor in such as the policies and delivery preferences of each school, access to different platforms and devices and availability of adults, whether at school or at home to facilitate or support. 

Our approaches varied from school to school and pupil to pupil in order to find the best way of reaching each and every one of our pupils. Where we haven’t been able to teach pupils through live online lessons, we found the best way of reaching our pupils through other means, whether by uploading to the school’s platform, prerecording video sessions or sending work by email or physical packs. In many cases a blended approach was possible and feedback suggests this was usually the most effective medium. 

New Opportunities for working

In some schools we have supported pupils beyond the usual caseload by providing access to online resources. The ability to train online enables us to reach more staff. We have provided a series of free training sessions for schools on delivering remote learning for pupils with SEND in five separate sessions to different audiences, alongside our usual training offer of supporting pupils with Literacy and/or Maths difficulties. We have also been able to provide more bespoke training for support staff, such as a pilot project on delivering precision teaching.

Evaluating the Positives

Whilst there have been challenges, we have seen a number of positives which we are building on back in schools.

It was great to have TA in lesson in order to model strategies that (she) could use outside our one-to-one session.

LNSS Teacher
  • Increased communication with school staff and parents using online platforms.
  • More effective ways of sharing follow up work for pupils
  • Increased uptake of follow-up work between sessions due to messages on online platforms
  • Greater access to online resources, particularly for follow-up work
  • A wider range of resources which meet the specific needs and interests of our pupils

Feedback from a survey of 35 Wandsworth SENCos mirrors national findings on the positives of remote learning for SEND students

I prefer remote learning because:

It’s more interesting
I get to do it at home
There is always someone to me at home
When I finish I can other things I want to do

Wandsworth SEND pupil
  • Pupils may be able to work at a time to suit them and at their own pace
  • Lessons can be completely differentiated 
  • Pupils can revisit a session again
  • They may have one to one support at home 
  • They may be using different learning methods that suit them better
  • Technology may enhance the experience

Applying lessons learned

Going forward it is important that we don’t lose the momentum of the positives gained from new ways of working. We will continue to deliver teaching sessions using the methods that engages and benefits each individual pupil most effectively with a focused approach on using more online resources, particularly during follow-up work. We also hope to sustain the stronger working relationships with support staff and parents developed over the recent months. We will also be moving to a blended approach to some of our training sessions, with fewer face-to-face sessions and increasing our menu of webinars whether live or on demand. However, we recognise the importance of bringing teachers and support staff together outside their settings for certain training.

A time to increase the use of Assistive technology

https://www.callscotland.org.uk/common-assets/cm-files/posters/ipad-apps-for-learners-with-dyslexia.pdf

We hope that schools will similarly reflect on the lessons learned in supporting SEND pupils and a final plea: – How can the increased number of devices in schools be deployed to support SEND pupils? Schools are reporting that they have up to 3 or 4 times the number of devices that they had a year ago and are now making decisions about the best use of those going forwards. Assistive technology plays a key role in supporting pupils to be more independent and maximise their potential is used effectively. Some initial thoughts about how the devices might be used.

  • Alternative recording on a regular basis for all pupils
  • Text to speech technology (e.g. Dictate)
  • Graphic organisers for planning
  • Access to online reading resources
  • Immersive reader to access texts beyond reading ability
  • Online manipulatives for recording work in Maths

If you would be interested in a working party on supporting SEND students using your school’s devices or for any aspect of our Service please book a Head to Head meeting.

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If we have piqued your interest in Smart School Services, why not meet with our head team to see how we can work together. To arrange your Head to Head, or for any other enquiry, simply fill in the contact form and we’ll be in touch shortly.