Agenda item
Educational Impact of Covid-19
A verbal update to be provided.
Minutes:
The Sub-Committee received a verbal update on the impact Covid-19 is having on education in the borough, the steps taken to minimize disruption to children and the support provided to schools.
The Sub-Committee heard from Councillor Danny Hassell, Cabinet Member for Children and Schools, who praised the leadership of Headteachers and education professionals who had in difficult circumstances, with varied government messages, worked tremendously hard to open schools in September 2020. He said this was a key moment for the borough with a range of partners helping to ensure schools could return safely.
Councillor Hassell said everyone was aware of the importance of safeguarding as well as health and wellbeing of children; and the role schools played in narrowing the inequalities gap. He said the Tower Hamlets Education Partnership (THEP)had supported and shared good practice, which had been invaluable in ensuring schools and pupils were well equipped with digital solutions, to narrow the gap between disadvantage groups.
The Sub-Committee heard from Tracy Smith, Executive Director, Tower Hamlets Education Partnership and Headteachers Brenda Landers of Swanlea Secondary School and Maria Lewington of John Scurr Primary School, on their experience of dealing with the impact Covid-19 was having on schools.
In response to questions from Members the following was noted:
· Ms Maria Lewington said not all children have access to technology at home. The Covid-19 pandemic had highlighted the quality of the technology being used and access to it. For instance, children may have access to a family iPad, laptop or computer however this was not necessarily of high quality and caused challenges such as siblings competing to have access to it. Ms Landers added that whilst remote learning meant children could view a video, it was not the same as children taking part in a lesson at school.
· In response to how much of a gap is there in terms of learning, that has been lost because of school closures due to the pandemic and how long will it take for children to catch up, Ms Landers said with the exception of year 10 and year 12 students, students in the other year groups had time to catch up with their learning, with staff at the school working, with families to put together interventions. The overwhelming majority of students would make up the deficits in their learning. However, students in year 10 and 12 had missed a significant amount of time on their study courses and it was uncertain if the government would be providing any additional support, for these students when they took their exams. Ms Lewington added the gaps they had experienced were in the transition of children from home to primary school and the transition from primary to secondary school.
· Ms Landers stated the lockdown had demonstrated how resilient children are in adapting to new situations. She said some students had coped better than others with the lockdown and home learning, however young people with challenging home lives had suffered. She said many students were enthusiastic and focused in returning to school in September with a more appreciative attitude to their learning and education.
· Ms Lewington said it was difficult to pinpoint a particular demographic who had been particularly impacted but one of the risk factors were hard to reach families. She said the school tried to work with parents to ensure children are in school and overall, the school community was eager for the school to be open and for learning to take place. She said informing parents and explaining why children must not be in school, if they have symptoms of Covid-19, which has led to year groups having to isolate, had been challenging because parents want their children to be in school.
· Ms Smith said the Education Partnership had conducted a survey to find out about remote learning gaps, with 30% of schools responding. She said whilst this was not a wide coverage of schools it did provide a snapshot of what the concerns were. She said there wasn’t a huge concern about gaps in learning but an emphasis on getting children back to school to allow learning to take place. Ms Smith said primary schools were particularly concerned about year 1 children as some of the children had forgotten behaviours for leaning and routines. Writing was one of the areas of concern. She said to support this, the Education Partnership had put together learning packs for children to do at home.
· Ms Smith continued stating boys and children with SEND were also mentioned in the survey. She said one of the benefits of having SEND and key worker children in school throughout the lockdown, had meant some children had benefited because of the extra time they had with their class teacher.
· Regarding remote learning, a project had been set up to peer review schools and to share learning, which would be taken forward in the new year. An Academy school had undertaken some work regarding access to devices and the Education Partnership had been working with a company to procure devices from large companies in the City and Canary Wharf. It has so far delivered 120 devices to local schools.
· In response to how teaching staff and support workers in school remain safe and how staff absences are being mitigated against, Ms Landers said that in preparation for the opening of the school in September, years 10 and 12 students had returned to school over the summer with the remaining years continuing to do remote learning. She said this provided the opportunity for staff to learn the new safety procedures that had been put in place. Staff that were clinically vulnerable and staff who had high levels of anxiety but did not fall into the vulnerable category were identified and work was undertaken to ensure individual staff members were supported on a one to one basis.
· In response to if schools should close again, due to the rise in Covid-19 cases, Ms Landers said she did not believe schools should close. She said they should remain open so long as it was safe to do so. She said schools were an essential service and there shouldn’t be a rush to close them.
· Ms Landers said the pandemic had been a new experience for most headteachers and coping with the rapid changes the school had to make especially over the last term had been phenomenal. She praised colleagues in Tower Hamlets Education Partnership (THEP), Public Health colleagues and the leadership of Christine McInnes, Divisional Director, Education and Partnerships for the support they had provided.
· Ms Landers said the consolidation of the SEND service by the local authority was a positive step which should help build capacity within schools. Ms Landers said the vast majority of SEND support was provided in schools and as such it was vital the financial support to schools was flexible enough to allow schools to make the right decision in terms of where provision was procured, to enable them tailor packages of support according to a child’s needs.
· Ms Landers stated Covid-19 had made schools rethink how schools are run and organised and said this would not have happened had it not been for the pandemic. She said this had led to changes in routine and behaviour, to which most young people had responded positively. She said there would be a lot of changes which they would keep post Covid-19. Ms Landers said many Headteachers would say behaviour had improved for the better. She said considerable time was spent communicating to students the new routines and behaviours and the changes that had been made. Ms Lewington added that they had redesigned year groups which supported children in the classroom. However, this had been a challenge. She said they had to carefully think about the changes that they were making, and risk assess them, but overall behaviour had been even better than expected, especially in primary schools.
· In response to if schools and headteachers believed they had been supported by the Council and public health colleagues; Ms Smith responded stating in terms of support provided to schools it was a level playing field. She said her organisation THEP had been quick to provide support to every Headteacher and offered leadership and coaching programmes to approximately 75 out of 100 schools. Ms Smith said they had increased the offer of leadership and consultants to schools and had put on virtual coffee meetings and meetings concerning practical steps such as how teachers could use Google classrooms for virtual learning. She said it was important for teaching professionals not to feel isolated and praised the leadership in schools in Tower Hamlets. She said some schools required more support, depending on the number of Covid cases, but this was reviewed on a weekly basis. Headteachers worked collaboratively and there was always someone who could share their learning and give advice.
The Chair thanked the attendees for their contribution to the meeting and said their input had been invaluable to members in understanding the situation in schools.