Lessons learnt in lockdown by Michelle Prosser Haywood

In this piece, Michelle Prosser Haywood, acknowledges that teachers have been working in unprecedented circumstances due to COVID19, and they can learn from some of the practices adopted to meet the needs of children during this time, including home education which may be needed to support a child’s individual needs, once we all return to normal schooling. Michelle also highlights factors we should consider for all children who could be transitioning back to school after a significant absence.

No one expected the country to go into a lockdown on the 23rd March as a result of a global pandemic, and over the few weeks that followed to the Easter holidays, Schools and families had to adjust to new circumstances. Many children stayed at home with their parents, whilst other children, with parents who were keyworkers or were considered vulnerable continued to attend school, but with considerable changes made to allow for social distancing. This has been the biggest change to our ‘normal ways of living and working’ that most of us have ever experienced, and there is much to be learnt from how we have managed this change. We have quickly adapted to working online, using multiple online learning tools, and have provided hard copies as alternatives, for families without laptops and internet access. We have provided structure to routines and learning activities in a home environment and we have regularly monitored this. Prior to COVID19, for learners with SEND, some parents opted for home schooling and some parents may opt to continue educating their children in this way once the lockdown is over. It could be that there is a mixed system for many more months to come and maintaining good practice is essential, as many parents may not wish for their children to be in school, despite assurances that it is safe and social distancing policies are in place. Remember however that if a parent opts for full time home education, after the COVID19 pandemic has passed, that your school will need to follow specific guidance for home education. The responsibility for the child will pass to the parent and the Local Authority who are required to undertake an annual assessment of the education provided at home. The child will no longer be on your school roll. When school is operating as it was before the lockdown, some learners may be excluded from school for short periods of time, and it is essential that we try and meet these children’s educational needs, whilst they remain at home, for example, the rate of fixed period exclusions in primary schools was 1.40% in 2017/2018 (140 pupils per 10,000) and some children are absent for extended holiday leave and medical difficulties. It is therefore likely that at some point you will need to reconsider home education again and refer back to the good practice which occurred during the lockdown. While children are absent If learners are home educated, for any length of time, it is essential, as it is at school that there is regular contact with parents/carers and good practice is discussed with them as frequently as possible. A regular routine at home as well as school is essential and can be achieved by using a timetable and continuing to have similar breaks and meal times, which can help signify a change in activity alongside something such as a phone alarm which can easily be set. If breaks can be kept the same and not missed, this creates a bridge between home and school and can help transition back to school. A visual timetable can be used and as long as the same symbols/pictures are used; any illustrations can be used, which are recognisable to the child. It could be, for example, that no printers are available

to copy materials, so simple drawings with stick people could be used. If possible, children should be provided with a learning area, and in some homes, this can be difficult because of lack of space, but if you can provide some familiar items from school this could help. It could be an exercise book, pencil and a cushion, for example, but you may have other items you can provide which create a school area for the child. It could be that you have access to some specialist resources, such as a laptop which could be loaned with access to worksheets and learning programmes , or you might have access to a Robot (AV1), which enables children to continue to be part of classroom learning. The robot allows a child to see, hear and talk to their classmates through a secure app. A child using the robot can ask questions, as a white light will flash on the robot’s head, and a child at home continues to be part of the learning activity happening in school. Teachers need to continue to maintain regular contact with children, who are absent, and this can be through a number of ways, which have been successfully demonstrated by schools across social media; regular quizzes, webchats, marking work if it has been set, using Tik Tok and recording lessons. Many of the resources that were used during the Lockdown will still be available to plan online learning sessions, such as The Oak National Academy and items which were posted onto YouTube such as fitness sessions with Joe Wickes and Storytime with David Walliams. Sometimes when a child is away from school, families may not have access to the same support mechanisms and we have to orchestrate these for them. School Educational Psychologists for example, can visit a child at home, but the arrangement would need to be made with the school. It may be that a visit is necessary to plan the integration activities which will support the child’s return to school. It is important to remind children what their school looks like, so running virtual tours and using parts of the school for activities, such as one of the classrooms for a story setting, or a ‘live’ treasure hunt around the school with the teachers and children who are in the building, will help to keep the school building familiar to them for when they return. Transitioning back to School When the child is ready to return, a range of staggered starts and shorter days may be employed, to integrate them back into the school routine. These will be agreed with the parent/carer. Consideration should be given to children’s engagement in the work that has been provided whilst they have been absent, and depending on how long they have been absent their engagement with learning activity could have varied, from day to day, or week to week, if they have been absent for a significant amount of time. We also need to be careful if we are providing online resources to deliver curriculum content, that we do not develop an over reliance on technology which may be a difficult habit to break when the child returns to school. Physical packs of resources and books which can be delivered to the house, may help with this. There may be some children, where learning at home may be more comfortable for them and returning to school may present particular challenges. Children with autistic spectrum conditions, for example, may prefer distance learning. Ultimately, each child’s experience during their absence will be different and when children return, we need to be aware of these experiences and plan accordingly. Return When children return to school, it is likely they will be experiencing separation anxiety, and will need to adjust to being around big groups of children again, as well as coping with loss and change. The school the child will be returning to will not be the school they left, some staff may no longer be there, and they themselves will have changed during the time they have been absent. We need to consider that during a child’s absence they will have experienced five losses; routine, structure, friendship, opportunity and freedom and we need to build these in their return. We should therefore prioritise emotional health and wellbeing over academic achievement, providing opportunities for choice and flexibility and a sense of belonging, which will have been missed during the absence. We should make space for informal learning, by being responsive to their individual need and interests and planning time for these into the school day. Overall, we must understand that when children are away from school, they will have had different experiences, and some progress may have been made but for others, they may have been no learning gains at all. We must understand that re-establishing routines may take longer than we

expect and children returning to school will be re learning the rhythms of the everyday; getting up at the same time, leaving the house at the same time and accommodating other family members in these routines, which they may not have been involved in during their absence. Remember that there is a wealth of resources on the internet which could be used as models to support reintegration for any child, and your starting point could be the following examples, https://restoreourschools.files.wordpress. com/2020/05/restore-poster.pdf https://www.evidenceforlearning.net/ recoverycurriculum/ https://www.independentthinking.co.uk/blog/ posts/2020/may/let-the-children-heal-you/ Michelle Prosser Haywood is the Head of ResearchSEND at the University of Wolverhampton.