Primary First 28

PrimaryFirst The journal for primary schools Issue 28 £5.00

Front cover designed and drawn

by Rebecca (aged 13)

‘Only by abolishing the situation of oppression is it possible to restore the love which that situation made impossible. If I do not love the world - if I do not love life- If I do not love people - I cannot enter into dialogue.’

Paulo Freire National Association for Primary Education

The NAPE I-Spy Programme ...a complete range of over 50 titles are available

The National Association is delighted to make I-Spy books available to all schools.

The books are invaluable in enhancing and illuminating learning out of school.

Key Features • The complete range of over 50 titles are available • Priced at just £2.00 per book - 20% cheaper than list price (Min order quantity 10 per title) • Orders need to be paid for in advance by credit or debit card • Please note that the minimum order quantity is 10 per title to enjoy this special rate.

• Teacher Guides available on-line to assist in activity planning with project ideas, curriculum advice and higher level thinking - these guides will be made available progressively.

• Special I-Spy notebooks at 5 for £1 on qualifying orders, whilst stocks last.

• Post and Packing free on orders more than £30 • Next day order fulfilment received before 12pm

Post and Packing free on orders totalling more than £30.00. Next day delivery if orders received before 12 pm.

National Association for Primary Education

For further information and details of how and where to purchase please contact:

The Nape National Office | Tel: 01604 647646 | Email: nationaloffice@nape.org.uk 2

Editorial Are teachers heroes?

I never could have imagined the effects of COVID 19 on our society and education. Since the lockdown was imposed on the United Kingdom in March this year, all those in education have been trying to wrestle with providing learning opportunities in a situation where improvisation, reorganisation and prioritisation have been key.

For me, the issue of identity has been at the heart of the public’s and media’s perception of teachers.

Teachers have been hailed as ‘heroes’ and arguably more appreciated in the arena of home schooling.

The OED defines a hero as someone ‘admired for great deeds and noble qualities’ and it may be that some exasperated parent dealing with working from home, or being denied access to a garden, or trying to recall basic algebra to help with yr 5 homework may consider Ms Roderick or Mr Lewis as heroic but it gives all teachers the perfect reason to recapture their professional identity as true vocationalists instead.

Teachers’ identities rests with their vocational sense of duty and they do not need to be called superheroes; vocation is a professional calling that drives them to be heroic. Heroic in the sense of planning stimulating lessons, providing resources, knowing children’s developmental needs and going beyond expectation in pastoral care (think breakfast clubs, uniform exchange, laundry services, conversations with parents to name but a few of the unpaid aspects of everyday teaching for some in modern Britain). It is also the right time to bury an unkind saying the profession suffers with. It is the jibe that teachers work 9 till 3 and have six weeks

off in the summer. This may be attributed to parents calling automated school telephone systems where this message is replayed ‘this school is open between the hours of…’. It is right that parents and carers who are at some degree of coping with home schooling are realising that teaching is very hard, is sustained, requires pedagogical training and must obviously not shut down when children leave the school gates.

In this time of COVID-19 it has been fascinating to see almost any interviewee on television position themselves in front of a bookcase. I think that politicians have been very careful to position certain books (and objects) to clearly demonstrate and confirm an identity. Teachers: if you were interviewed on television, what books would you place behind you to signify your professional and pedagogical identity?

Whom would you choose? What theoretical literature would be present? Could the books sum up your teaching philosophy, for example, in terms of inclusion, race equity, subject knowledge?

Identity matters and professional identity is a gift you as teachers already have. If COVID-19 has given you one opportunity, it is time to take children back from weary parents and carers knowing full well the professionals are back and heroes will be the boxes of chocolates you may receive in gratitude.

About us Editorial Editorial Board Photo Credit

Dr Robert Morgan Peter Cansell, Stuart Swann, Robert Young Sam Carpenter

Primary First journal is published three times per year by the National Association for Primary Education.

Primary First, 57 Britannia Way, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS14 9UY Tel. 01543 257257 Email: r.a.morgan@gre.ac.uk ©Primary First 2020 Spring Issue No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written permission of the publisher. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the editorial content the publisher cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher.

03

04

03.

Editorial Dr Robert Morgan

05.

A state-of-the-art digital platform intends to revolutionise the way communities engage with their local state schoolsLearning from an island in lockdown by Phil Murphy

20.

Braithwaite in lockdown by Millie Macqueen

22.

How long is a piece of string by Millie Macqueen

24.

How teachers can encourage young children’s learning at home - reflections in the light of the lockdown by Tony Eaude

30.

Dear headteacher

08.

Learning from an Island in lockdown

by Tracy Morgan

11.

Life in lockdown by Karan Abrol

32.

Eco learning at Damers by Edd Moore

13.

Learning in a hub model during COVID-19

by Rebecca Phillips

36.

Establishing a purposeful school newspaper by Emma Seaton

17.

Lessons learnt in lockdown by Michelle Prosser Haywood

38.

A Tribute to John Coe

PrimaryFirst

A state-of-the-art digital platform intends to revolutionise the way communities engage with their local state schools, bringing much needed support to teachers.

by Phil Murphy

When the precocious son of the founders of LetsLocalise started at a prestigious state school in Berkshire, he was shocked and more than a little disappointed by what he found.

Despite the limitless energy and creativity of the teaching staff, he found the school to be in a shabby condition, its equipment often aged or broken and the opportunities to engage pupils in external trips and activities that might broaden their horizons to be limited at best and non-existent at worst. The conversations at home triggered by these observations led to an idea with the potential not just to transform the prospects of state schools; it also offered an opportunity to strengthen local communities, by bringing multiple people, organisations and businesses into close relationships with their local schools.

The lightbulb moment for Gaurav and Divya Garg, based in Wokingham in Berkshire, came when surveys prompted by their son’s observations showed that in excess of 60% of people in a given community wanted to actively help their local schools. They just had no idea how to do so. What if this reservoir of goodwill could be tapped into and piped into local schools?

Given the background of the Gargs and friends and colleagues in innovation, technology and community activities, the solution emerged in the shape of a digital platform, LetsLocalise, that could highlight the demand in schools and connect it to ‘supply’ out in the community. A critical perception in the framing of the idea came in the realisation that support for schools needed to come in a variety of formats. Yes, financial support would be important but so too would be volunteer time, expertise, work experience – in fact, anything that would help pupils get a clearer window to the world beyond the core curriculum.

05

06

The idea behind the concept is that state schools register on the platform and, between them, headteachers and their teaching teams identify the programmes and activities that they would most like to pursue but currently cannot, due to insufficient financial or human resource. A typical selection for a single school might be a campaign to raise funds for basketball hoops, a request for help with painting and decorating, an appeal for volunteers to act as exam supervisors, an appeal to experts to talk about their chosen profession and a request for internships or work experience opportunities for pupils.

Once a school has posted the details of these programmes on the site, individuals in the local community, local organisations and local businesses are approached and asked to register on the platform too. Those registering can then browse through the range of requests across a range of schools and choose how best they can help. A critical stage in the development of these school-community connections is in finding ways of reaching beyond pupils’ parents and bringing in support and resources that would not normally find their way into schools. Reaching the very people who said they wanted actively to help but did not know how.

LetsLocalise has managed to break down ways of supporting schools into neat categories, which can be easily navigated on the Website. So, for example, there is Pledge a Penny, Pledge a Minute, Pledge a Resource, Working with Schools, Expert Time and Corporate Connect.

No headteacher or teacher will ever have had access to a platform with the scope and range of LetsLocalise in their professional lives. It is a multisided platform that enables multiple participants to engage at the same time. So, instead of Websites through which schools can simply share information with their pupils’ parents, LetsLocalise can bring individuals, organisations and businesses onto the platform simultaneously, creating multiple connections and offering scope for engagement between schools and would-be supporters in a wide range of relationships.

The LetsLocalise story moved from the drawing board to the real world in November 2019, when the founders and the team of colleagues and supporters

PrimaryFirst

they had built up, launched a pilot across seven schools in Berkshire. In fact, the company had to cap the number of schools it first engaged with because virtually every headteacher to whom the idea was outlined wanted to participate.

“Like all brilliant ideas, the LetsLocalise concept is rooted in simplicity. Headteachers can see that tapping into that reservoir of goodwill that we are convinced exists out there in every community is a ‘no brainer’. Why would a school not want to tap into the support networks that can be constructed from their local communities?” says co-founder, Gaurav Garg.

For Divya Garg, who has a strong background in community schemes, the way in which the LetsLocalise concept can strengthen communities is as exciting as the support it can bring to schools.

“From the retired person with years of experience but at risk of social isolation to local companies looking at how best they can invest in their local communities, LetsLocalise can offer a fail-safe means of engaging. Pledgers who sign up can do so confident that the programmes they are supporting are priority programmes for their local schools. This is not chipping into a charitable pool, perhaps unsure about how one’s support is going to be used.”

The Gargs have no illusions about the challenge of reaching beyond the parent cadre and bringing in a wider range of pledgers; but they have the support of experts from the fields of digital networks, behavioural science and innovation to help them navigate this. Covid-19 came at a frustratingly inconvenient time for LetsLocalise, checking the momentum they were building through their pilots but the intention is to expand the number of schools involved shortly after normal service is resumed.

Another key to success will be in launching more widely its appeal to businesses through the Corporate Connect feature.

“We believe that Corporate Connect can be a real game-changer. It enables companies looking to support local schools to use their social investment funds but, as importantly, their knowledge, expertise and work experience opportunities to help create lasting, deepening relationships that will be of mutual benefit to schools and business,” says Gaurav.

Even before the Covid-19 outbreak, despite claims from across the political spectrum that schools would be better funded in future after 10 years of austerity, few people involved in state education expected to see radical change any time soon. Now, given the inevitable economic impact of the virus, it is likely to be even longer before a dent is made in the 8% fall in spending per pupil over the last decade and headteachers’ estimate of a £5.7bn gap between need and funding.

In this environment, it makes sense for schools to tap into all the external support that is available out there. In an ideal world, all state schools would be properly funded and the personal development programmes of our pupils would reach well beyond the core curriculum out into the world beyond the classroom. But we are not in an ideal world, so it is to initiatives like LetsLocalise that we need to turn.

If the resource and the support is out there, who wouldn’t want to access it?

Simon Cope, Headteacher at Wildridings Primary School, Bracknell, Berkshire: “I think LetsLocalise is just such a fantastic project.

It does take time to get it up and running – but once it is up and running, keep pushing. At the end of the day, the only people that are going to benefit are the children of the school so it’s definitely a worthwhile project. I would recommend it to anybody that’s looking to get involved with them.

“For me, it’s a no-brainer to get involved with LetsLocalise and we’re very excited about the future.”

“Our pilot in Berkshire is just the start of what could be a major community initiative. We want to expand to cover all state schools in Berkshire, then all state schools across the UK. We will then look to how we can roll out similar programmes for other public services – starting with the NHS,” says Divya Garg.

“Our first ambition is to improve the lot of 1m British schoolchildren…but that is just the start of the revolution!” she says.

(LetsLocalise is a service offered free of charge to all state schools. The Website can be found at www.letslocalise.co.uk) Testimonials: Shirley Austin, Headteacher at The Forest School, Winnersh, Berkshire.

“I would say it’s a great opportunity to link in with your community, to work with great people. It’s a unique opportunity because not many people step forward and give up their time like this company does, so I would say grab hold of the opportunity, publicise it lots, be patient and stick with it, and work hard with the team around you because they’re there to help you.”

07

08

Learning from an island in lockdown

by Tracy Morgan In the beginning there was a school. A school in an island community working hard to provide the best outcomes for its pupils. Then Covid-19 struck. At first, seemingly something that was happening on the other side of the world, we saw it creeping towards us like an unknown eerie shadow, not knowing when it would arrive or the impact that it would have. With a population of around 146,000 and one relatively small general hospital, reliant on ferries for transport and tourism rich, there developed a sense of unease about how this virus would affect all our lives. How would this affect our island and school communities?

Would it devastate us or would the strip of water that separates us from the mainland be our saviour?

Suddenly schools were announced to be closing and educational leadership took on a whole new meaning.

Suddenly outcomes, pupil progress and curriculum development took a back seat in favour of safety, health and mental well-being. Suddenly everything as we knew it changed.

our approach has been to support the well-being and mental health of our school community. Our aim has been for our children and their families to spend time talking, playing and engaging in learning activities that support our skills-based curriculum. Through this approach, our children have accessed core English and mathematics learning, but additionally a wealth of foundation subjects such as design & technology, music, art, PSHE and geography.

Within the initial stages of the school closure, there was the scramble to work out how, as a leadership team, we would provide care for the children of critical keyworkers without knowing who would be on this list. The list, when it arrived, encompassed so many and we had to manage the rush of parents trying get places for their children to remain in school.

Once this was arranged, there was no time to breathe as we moved into looking at how we would also provide learning for our children who would remain at home.

We have not put pressure on families to complete tasks, but asked them do what is right for their family.

We are conscious that during this time, many families have been faced with untold challenges that greatly differ from home to home. Our teachers have provided tasks that are not only web-based but also practical too - allowing all children to access learning. We have communicated with families via our teacher-parent messaging app and website, in which we have shared resources, hosted lived story sessions and recorded teachers demonstrating activities. More importantly, we have celebrated learning by showing photographs of children cooking, gardening, sewing, exercising, fundraising and supporting vulnerable neighbours.

Teachers have been working hard to respond to emails and messages from parents and children, provide childcare and make phone calls to check in with pupils; not just the vulnerable groups but all of our families. All whilst working from home or supporting children in our keyworker provision. All whilst knowing that the virus has changed the lives of people within our school community.

With little guidance to go on, schools locally have taken vastly different approaches to providing home learning opportunities. From the start of lock down,

We have been overwhelmed with positive messages from our parents in appreciation of the support and approach we have taken. It has meant so much to our

PrimaryFirst

09

10 staff to receive these as they have worked incredibly hard both to support families but also provide childcare to the families of critical frontline workers.

As a leadership team, knowing our school community has been the key.

We have used this enforced time away from lesson plans and marking to focus in more depth and detail on our curriculum offer with subject leaders spending time that they wouldn’t often have to focus on planning and developments within their own subjects.

Our curriculum plans and progression maps have been refreshed and updated and our intent statements have been reviewed.

Whilst a clear plan has been essential, leadership has also become about managing expectations: The expectations of parents whose own lives have changed as they find themselves newly out-of-work, working from home whilst also supporting their children with their learning; the expectations of staff who have their own anxieties and worries and are also working from home, often juggling this with their own childcare; the expectations of the government and local authority who have given us their own directives. All this, whilst managing our own health and well-being and that of our own families.

As we move into the next phase with lockdown easing, we begin to look to the future. ‘Normal’ schooling seems a long way off but we look now to how we can safely reopen our school to our children.

Our focus as leaders still remains on ensuring that we have a clear vision for doing this as safely as possible whilst continuing to support the well-being and mental health of our children and staff. Providing our own clear plan to do so has been a lengthy process and will continue to be adapted as new, almost daily, guidance emerges. In true leadership style however, the plan is never finished and constantly evolves with further questions arising that need to be answered.

In the end? We do not yet know the end. What we do know is that the strip of water we love to hate, along with lockdown and vastly reduced ferry services, has contributed to us having one of the lowest Covid-19 levels in the country.

PrimaryFirst

We do know that the virus has touched the lives of members of our staff and our families and we will do our best to support them through this. We also know that as a leadership team we come through this together and stronger, ready for the next chapter.

Tracy Morgan is Assistant Headteacher and English and Curriculum Lead at Hunnyhill Primary School, Newport, Isle of Wight https://www.hunnyhillschool.co.uk/

Life in Lockdown by Karan Abrol There is no doubt that lockdown is one of the most difficult times for humanity. It is extremely hard to see that so many people are ill and dying and to worry about your own and the safety of your loved ones.

I cannot go out to see my friends and I cannot celebrate birthdays with others or even just attend my various clubs and activities. Like most people, I am trying to counter my social connection issues by using apps to regularly video call my friends and family. I have been enjoying playing online Ludo - with me and my dad, and my friend and his dad being in opposing teams; it is great to cheer and to compete with each other.

My mum is a key worker and my dad works for himself and although they have been able to work from home, it also means I have to keep myself engaged and do my work, mostly independently. This is a challenge and I sometimes catch myself getting distracted, but I have kept on top of all the work my mum sets me for the day. I have been learning Spanish, French and German on the Junior Language Challenge and managed to stay in first place in the international competition. I play with my dog in the garden and am training him to play Frisbee! I have been making my own breakfast every day and I have also tried some new recipes as I’ve now got more free time to do so.

I have tidied up the bookcase and have been reading lots of books. I’ve read books by M.G. Leonard and Robert Muchamore. I sometimes imagine being a character in the book I’m reading. I feel very grateful to the delivery people for supplying me with my little pleasures and my books from the series that I’m reading. I’ve also written a story and created a few new characters.

I painted my bedroom with my brother and my sister, have cooked with them, played Monopoly and chess with them and probably spent more time with them than I would normally do in a year, as they are both generally busy with work and university. This has meant that we have bonded like never before.

My Scout sessions have become interesting as they

now happen online. I’m glad to get to see the leaders and other Scouts. We do riddles, play games, and learn new skills. We learnt about cartography and I enjoyed figuring out what the different symbols on the maps meant. We celebrated Easter and VE day. These sessions have been my key contact with peers. As part of my weekly Scouts’ challenge, I have been creating various art and craft pieces from recycled materials. I have made a variety of things: skittles and toothbrush holders from plastic bottles; a plant pot from a yoghurt tub and plastic bags; a fountain from stones, plastic tubing and a cardboard box; and frames from kitchen rolls and a shoe box. I have loved being involved with these; it has helped harness my creativity and kept me happily occupied. I have also started doing my piano lessons on Skype and have been practicing daily, something I struggled to find time for before lockdown.

Initially, I was cautious of leaving the house and decided to stay indoors for the first 6 weeks. Time in my garden was the only fresh air I got. I tried to keep up with the news daily and worried a lot. I tried mindfulness meditation, listened to calming music and tried to keep myself occupied. For In the last few days my mum has encouraged me to join her for a daily walk and it has made me feel recharged and energised.

I think I will build this as a routine that I stick with even after the lockdown.

The pandemic has encouraged me to research cells and other viruses and I think in the future I will study biology to work towards a career in science. It is reassuring to see that scientists are working hard to test vaccines and cures for the virus. I wish that a vaccine is available for everyone soon and that we humans can win the war over Covid 19. I also wish for things to get back to normal.

Karan Abrol, aged 11, lives and attends school in Greenwich, London. Currently approaching the end of his primary school career, he is an avid reader, writer and contributes widely to his school community.

11

12

Learning in a Hub model during COVID-19

by Rebecca Phillips

PrimaryFirst

Griffithstown Primary Griffithstown Primary School is located in the beautiful area of Pontypool in South Wales. The town has lots of heavy industrial history, including railways (Pontypool Road station once had one of the largest coal marshalling yards in the UK), steelworks (BSC Panteg), gasworks (on VE day, 1945, the House of Lords was concerned with the second reading of the Pontypool Gas Bill), and the former workhouse now County Hospital.

The school is set in stunning surroundings which enrich and enhance the learning and lives of the children that attend the school. This includes a school pond, built by staff and the community with the support of Keep Wales Tidy (historic environment service of the Welsh Government) and a canal jetty which leads directly onto the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal. This runs from the River Usk and Brecon feeder to the Newport Old Town Dock and Crumlin Wharf. The canal was originally constructed to transport coal, lime and agricultural products but was also used to export iron from the iron works in Blaenafon. This is now a World Heritage site, along with a section of the canal, which was granted this title in 2000.

I have worked at Griffithstown Primary School for 3 years, where I have been given the opportunity to develop and expand my professional career. I currently work in Year Two and lead Professional Learning and the Curriculum for Wales 2022 across the school, which I am very passionate about.

Covid 19 Teaching across the country and world has changed massively over the past couple of months owing to the huge impact of Covid 19. Griffithstown Primary School shut on Friday 20th March. This is when we began our home learning journey. Suddenly, we are no longer teaching in the routine of our own classroom and school, surrounded by children and our friends. We no longer have the usual lesson planning, classrooms to prepare and books to mark, surrounded by the smiles and kind hearts of children to cheer up any situation and day. Education, as we know it, has

dramatically changed. The work-load and long hours still remain, however, the interaction with the children is completely different, along with the planning and marking. The beaming faces of children that keeps us motivated each day is no longer lighting up classrooms, chatting, smiling, joking and laughing, making the days blissfully hectic. The children are still the smiling, happy children that we dismissed on the 20th March, but we now speak to them each day via laptops, computers and tablets. What would we have done without the advances in technology allowing us to do this?

Working at a Hub School Hub schools have been set up across Wales to give childcare to key workers. In the West-Mon Secondary cluster, which Griffithstown Primary is a part of, there is one hub school. Initially we went to the hub school to meet the staff and have a meeting about the protocol and procedures in place, although this changed once the hub school opened. Owing to the number of children attending (fewer than was initially anticipated), each school in the cluster will support the hub school on a weekly rota basis. Griffithstown’s week commenced on 25th April. I was put forward to work on the Wednesday from 8am until 6pm, which I was happy to do. Although, I was very apprehensive about meeting the needs of the children, child protection and social distancing from the children and adults at the school, I need not have been at all worried. It was a relaxed day full of play and kindness. The play scheme staff, cleaners, caretakers and kitchen staff were all very welcoming and friendly. The day began at 7.30am, arriving at the school early to ensure I gained the information I needed before the children arrived at 8am. Meeting four of my colleagues there was great, we were able to catch up and exchange ideas of home learning that we had been completing, getting the day off to a great start. The children arrived at 8am, with their key worker parents signing them in and filling out the relevant forms, and the children bounced into the canteen where they had their breakfast. It was so lovely to see their innocent, smiling faces in this unnerving time, it gave me the biggest smile.

Throughout the day, the children completed a range

13

14 of activities including sports and exercise, colouring, ICT games, art and crafts, poems and free play. The school is very well resourced, which made planning and learning a lot easier. I initially thought the day would be challenging, not officially teaching and with it being a ten-hour day, but the children responded well to the activities and the day was organised effectively. I left at the end of the day smiling and laughing with my colleagues which led to the drive home, realising how much I miss my class, the school, my friends and the whole atmosphere of our school.

Home Learning The Welsh Government is regarded as being a worldleader in digital service delivery of education. The government has developed a range of digital support for teachers, parents/carers and learners.

There are 5 key elements which support the delivery of education in Wales: • Hwb Cymru (Hub Wales) • Office 365 for all learners • Adobe Spark • A range of bilingual resources and support • Recent release of the ‘Stay Safe. Stay Learning.’ guidance document.

Our school chose to use the Welsh Government support platform of Hwb. Hwb was created by the Welsh Government in 2012 as a teaching and learning platform to provide resources, tools and support for teachers, children and parents. It includes: Office 365 including Microsoft Teams, Minecraft: Education Edition, G Suite for Education including Google Classroom and Just2easy.

Children are able to download Microsoft 365 and Minecraft Education for free through Hwb, which is important for children who do not have this package on their computer. Welsh Government’s Hwb has allowed teachers and children to access bilingual resources, developing Welsh language and culture. Hwb enables teachers to keep up to date with the new Welsh curriculum, Curriculum for Wales 2022, as it is updated as the curriculum develops and progresses.

PrimaryFirst

Wales has recently deployed Adobe Spark nationwide, allowing teachers and learners across Wales to access this resource for free. Enabling them to develop animations including webpages and videos. This resource has been used in some schools to continue their celebration assemblies or collective worship.

Kirsty Williams, the Education Minister for Wales, published the Stay Safe. Stay Learning distance learning support on Monday 20th April to support all stakeholders with the impact of Coronavirus on education. This designated area on Hwb has 3 key areas: distance learning tools (which were mentioned above, for example Microsoft Office 365), resources and support for parents and carers. Currently the resources section only contains Post 16 learning resources but it is being updated daily to include more resources and information. In the ‘support for parents and carers’ there is a statement that parents/ carers are not teachers and that any support and encouragement they can offer is helpful. This section also explains Hwb and the tools it offers to learners.

Hwb has been a huge help as Griffithstown Primary already used Hwb in our daily teaching, with each child having their own individual log in. As a platform we already use, this allowed us to be well prepared for home learning. The Senior Leadership Team at Griffithstown discussed and decided that Microsoft Teams was the best option to communicate and support learners to complete home learning. As many children were off school in the two weeks leading up to the school closure (because of self-isolation), teachers’ email addresses were text messaged to all parents and carers to ensure all children could access their Hwb logins. This was especially useful for the younger children as they had not memorised their logins, unlike upper Key Stage Two children.

Each week assignments are set for the children by the teachers of each year group, developing previously learnt skills. I believe developing and consolidating previously learnt skills with the correct support will be more beneficial than trying to introduce new concepts, which learners and parents may find difficult to teach and develop, especially as many parents and carers

Each teacher at Griffithstown Primary is working each day to ensure support is given to the learners and their parents/carers to ensure each child is learning and developing a range of skills during this uncertain time.

I believe it is important for children to develop a range of life skills whilst they’re in their home environment; skills like cooking, laying the table and tidying.

and resources three times a week. I initially thought this would be difficult, to think of three different ideas and resources to share each week but, as ever, the education community has strived to create and share so many amazing new resources. I am definitely tweeting a lot more than three times per week, as I come across so many exciting new tweets/ platforms each day. Ms Hall (my Year 2 colleague and our Foundation Phase Leader) and I have been using Flipgrid and Kahoot! as a section in our assignments set each week. Flipgrid has been used for children to record their views on subjects, which they have enjoyed. We have used Kahoot! as a fun quiz tool to test children on their knowledge after tasks have been set, for example a quiz on the Easter Story. Kahoot! is very interactive and plays music which the children love.

At Griffithstown Primary, we are using a range of other platforms to communicate with students, which include Twitter, Flipgrid and Kahoot! We have been using Twitter as a way of communicating to stakeholders for a while at Griffithstown Primary, updating it with reminders of dates, useful resources and important information. The use of Twitter has been increased, with an expectation of every teacher tweeting ideas

Overall, the home learning journey is evolving each week to give the children the best education that we can from the safety of our homes, ensuring the children stay safe in their homes too. I think that the children’s ICT skills have improved and the children will be leading the way with regards to ICT in our future along with the development of ever important resilience and perseverance skills. The future of education is uncertain

are working from home or are still working in their key worker roles. It is important to remember that parents/carers are not teachers too, however teachers are very grateful for any support and encouragement that they can provide for learners. Having many friends that are teachers as well as parents to young children just shows how difficult it is to keep ‘all of the plates spinning’ constantly.

15

16 at the moment but I know I will work as hard as possible to support children both academically and emotionally to the best of my ability both now and in the future.

Learners Missing Out Unfortunately, some parents have not fully engaged with the resources available for home learning on Microsoft Teams, hindering their ability to support their child’s learning; however, this is a very small percentage. Some parents/carers have limited ICT and internet access, which can make online home learning very tricky. On Thursday 30th April, Kirsty Williams announced that £3 million would be available to support learning who do not have access to an electronic device or the internet at home. I hope this will allow all children to be able to engage and interact with online home learning and give them the opportunity to connect with their school friends and teachers.

Many parents have asked for support with activities, which is a great positive as asking for help is a difficult thing to do when it is regarding your own knowledge.

In the future, it would be of great use for parents and carers to have the opportunity to join basic skill knowledge of key subjects to support home learning.

Lots of teachers have great ideas of workshops, including those that will facilitate and develop knowledge of technology and devices, which should help to support

PrimaryFirst

children with their online education as it evolves after this pandemic.

Future Education Education in Wales was changing massively with the implementation of Curriculum for Wales 2022.

This was and is going to have a huge impact on Welsh education as we know it, which I hope is for the best!

However, the effect of the Coronavirus on teaching is not one that was prepared for, nor could have been. I believe it will have developed children’s life skills, as well as educational skills. It has showcased how flexible teachers and leaders are and how they have been able to adapt and step up to the challenges that Covid 19 has brought. I hope this develops our education system even further, breaking down so many barriers and fears that teachers have for change.

Rebecca Phillips is a Year 2 Teacher at Griffithstown Primary School, Pontypool, Torfaen www.griffithstown-primary.co.uk

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

17

18 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,

PrimaryFirst

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.

19

20

A Braithwaite Lockdown

by Millie Macqueen At the moment, in my Cottage things are going quite smoothly….so far. It feels a little weird not really being able to see your friends without a screen in the way.

Luckily, everyone in my friendship group has a phone.

Almost every day, I try to FaceTime my friend Sophia, to do work, and that is exactly what I did today. This morning I woke up at nine o`clock and heard a knock at the front door. Once I had climbed down from my bunkbed, I rushed to grab my dressing gown to see who it was. Mummy had got there before me - as she woke up waaaay before me - and opened the door to the post man! Well who else would it be? He delivered my clubs and ribbon (for gymnastics) and since I was so excited I whisked them away to the conservatory to disinfect. Whilst they were disinfecting, I made breakfast and got my phone to text on the group chat does anyone want to FaceTime? `Once I had finished off my cereal and wiped the disinfectant off, I got dressed then checked my phone to see if there was a reply. Unfortunately, no-one had so I started my work by myself. I had already got through the maths and suddenly my phone started to buzz. It was Sophia. Trust her to be late!

Anyway, I picked up the phone and we happily got on with our work. She told me the reason why she was late; it was because her step sister and brother were leaving today and she thought that she should spend time with them in the early hours of the morning. The maths was pretty easy, even what was supposed to be the hard sheet! After the maths, I did the English which was also easy. All we had to do was: get a highlighter to highlight all the punctuation on the rules of Flutag - German for flight day - and then write a set of instructions on a crazy competition of our choice. EASY! Then we both got on with our afternoon project (even though it was still the morning). After that, we said goodbye and disconnected. Normally, we would have a zoom meeting all five of us but today one wasn’t planned so I played on Roblox for a good half hour.

Now, I am about to do a gymnastics session on zoom which is extremely different now we have to do it at home. Apart from the garden, we don’t have enough space and the garden doesn’t have any WIFI signal so if I eventually, successfully do a skill my coach wouldn’t see it. It`s quite strange on zoom as you can hear all the

PrimaryFirst

background noise; too many people speak at once and if you want to chat to a friend during the lesson then you have to text. Me and my friend secretly do just that!

One thing I really miss is horse riding. It was my happy place. But when the virus struck it stopped because of social-distancing. At first, I didn’t think it would stop that soon because it only needs five people but when lockdown was announced my thoughts were changed rapidly. With horse riding, it`s very different as you can`t really practise unless you have a really big garden and an actual horse. And we don’t have that. Especially a horse! I`m going to have to face that fact that until we`re back to normal circumstances I will have to dream on about smelling manure and sitting on the back of a horse.

Some positive things that have happened due to virus are: every Thursday, at 8`o clock, when the clap happens we meet up (obviously two metres apart) with other villagers and whilst we clap we also chat.

This is the way that as a family we have met people who we didn’t even realise lived here; we spend more time together as a family and we have been on some fantastic, magical walks that we have never been on before. Another lovely thing that has come out of it, is that the village is nice and quiet as we don’t have any tourists coming to see the beautiful views- but when it is over, they are welcome back.

As a way of keeping our community together, another friend of mine who lives here, Emily, has taken on the role of editor to create a village newsletter. If they want, all the children in Braithwaite can contribute to this new way of keeping our spirits up. Emily delivers some of the letters to us then we can distribute them to the elderly members of our small community. I personally think that she is that good that she could become a journalist.

I am very lucky to live where I do because I’ve got a garden and it`s not too busy compared to other children who might live in a crowded city.

Millie Macqueen is currently in year 6 and lives in the village of Braithwaite, Cumbria.

21

22

How long is a piece of string?

By Millie Macqueen I sit here with my pen in my hand wondering what to write, With the hiccups every now and then giving me an awful fright, I`ve got plenty of days to write this, I`m sure words will come to my head, `Aha I`ve got it` I said lying in my bunkbed, `I`ll do it about Braithwaite and how peaceful it is, Oh but when this is all over we`ll need tourists for our bis, So it won`t be so quiet any more, Unless we all stick to the new law.

I suppose this shall be a strange year, because we won`t be able to see our friends or go near, `When do you think this will be all over?`, I ask my parents almost every day, `Ugh` they sigh `like we said we don`t know, We just have to take it day by day,` My arm aches as I write this all down, And suddenly my smile turns into a frown, As I put much pressure on my pen, Soon I find myself asleep in my small, comfy den.

Go teach outdoors!

No fuss ideas for Maths and English lessons that can be completed in school grounds and don’t cost the earth!

View samples at www.collins.co.uk/KeenKite

23

24

PrimaryFirst

How teachers can encourage young children’s learning at home... reflections in the light of the lockdown

by Tony Eaude

25

26 The importance and value of homework, especially for young children, has for many years been a matter of dispute. Some argue that it provides a valuable opportunity to reinforce and extend what has been taught in school and for children to develop good work habits, such as following instructions and organizing themselves. Others see it as frequently pointless and tokenistic, often adding to children’s stress; and Hattie (2012) argues that 116 studies from around the world which he studied indicate that homework has almost no effect on children’s learning when they are at primary school. Holte (2016) even suggests that homework can be counterproductive, if children get over-tired, lose interest in school and develop poor work habits such as rushing tasks rather than completing them carefully and thoughtfully.

This article responds to Holte’s (2016) question ‘could homework be made more child-friendly?’ by reflecting on what has happened during the ‘lockdown’ when most children were not attending school for several weeks from March 2020 because of fears related to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is based on the beliefs that: • there is much more to education than what is learned at school or taught by teachers and that children’s learning should be seen holistically; and • ‘home learning’ is a much broader notion than homework (sent from school), to include learning in other contexts such as the family, voluntary, sporting or faith-based groups and more informal opportunities.

I explore how the work set by schools could help to increase children’s engagement and independence and draw on these sources of learning, being as inclusive as possible, without becoming burdensome for teachers.

How valuable homework is depends to a considerable extent on what is expected and how the activities are perceived by teachers, parents and above all children. Though many teachers provide imaginative challenges, homework too often consists mostly of reading, learning spellings and/or practising what has been taught at school. One significant problem is that middle-class parents can, and do, provide more support

PrimaryFirst

than those who are less highly-educated and confident about what the teacher expects, though they may also exert undue pressure. As a result, there is a danger that complicated homework increases the gap between those children who are supported at home and those who are not. But very simple, easily completed, homework provides minimal challenge to most children and becomes little more than a chore.

During the lockdown, many schools sent work electronically to be completed at home and most families accessed other electronic resources, both to enhance children’s learning and to keep them entertained. Among these resources were taught lessons and quizzes, most of which were, in my view, too teacher-directed, based on expecting children simply to answer questions and memorize factual knowledge, rather than encouraging them to exercise their creativity. The lockdown demonstrated that most children over the age of about seven can communicate via technology with each other, with adult oversight where necessary; and even very young children have become more familiar with using video technology.

While the research on the results of the lockdown is inevitably tentative, Müller and Goldenberg (2020) provide an overview of evidence about the pandemic and responses to this internationally. They conclude that ‘students’ success with home learning depends on their ability to access online learning, to study independently and the support they receive from home’ (2020, p. 17); and that ‘children from more deprived schools are less likely to complete the work set by their teachers, more likely to do work of a lower quality than their usual standard and less likely to have access to devices to help them access learning from home.’ (2020, p. 13) It seems, unsurprisingly, that those children who are most socially disadvantaged found it hard to access or use such resources because the necessary hardware is not available or they have to compete with siblings to use it; and even when they can do so may not have the necessary space or undisturbed environment which more advantaged families take for granted.

Müller and Goldenberg also cite previous research which suggests that the learning missed or forgotten

during school closures (including long holidays) tends to affect younger children more than older ones. An Education Endowment Foundation report on distance learning (EEF, 2020) indicates that supporting pupils to work independently can improve learning outcomes and that peer interaction in distance learning – for example utilising peer marking, live discussions of lesson content, and sharing models of good work – was effective in motivating pupils and improving outcomes, though this may relate more to older than younger students.

Such conclusions highlight the importance of adults, ideally teachers, in providing on-going guidance, support and feedback, especially for those children least experienced at, or capable of, learning on their own. In encouraging home learning, and setting homework, teachers must take account of the home environment, particularly the availability of technology and the space and undisturbed time to use it, and what level and type of support different children may need, as well as deciding what younger and older children can reasonably be expected to do.

The experience during the lockdown of home learning suggests ways in which homework could be more meaningful and engaging. One, admittedly anecdotal, example of what was possible for a seven year old keen on sport was that he created over several days a powerpoint presentation with a range of information about football teams; and went on to devise the schedule for a tournament ensuring that this was fair to all twenty teams participating. Both activities proved both motivating and challenging.

and Amanti (2005) to describe the types of knowledge which many children from disadvantaged backgrounds and minority cultures have, but which tend not to be highly valued in schools. These often involve practical activities such as cooking, childcare, growing plants and fishing – to give just a few examples. However, the idea can be extended to include many activities and interests of which the schooling system takes little or no account, but which children enjoy. These can be as diverse as chess or computer games, electronics or geology, knowledge of dinosaurs, martial arts or sacred texts – and many more. Such knowledge may be useful in the future but not necessarily so – but that is not the point, since much of what we learn is worthwhile for its own sake.

Adults should not underestimate what young children can do on their own, but must remember the importance of guidance and feedback, to steer and channel children’s enthusiasm. Child-led work is likely to be divergent, that is to go off at tangents and into unexpected, often fascinating, places, so that its outcomes cannot be known with any certainty in advance. But most young children find individual work hard to sustain, without structure and help, so homework which encourages discussion and collaboration with friends or family (including siblings, parents, grandparents and perhaps others) is likely to help children keep going when they lose their enthusiasm or get stuck.

• divergent; and

I suggest that to meet the criteria above homework should involve sustained projects, researching an area in which the children are interested, ideally in groups of between two and four. While individual projects can be motivating, there is a risk of losing momentum, unless other people provide support. Groups larger than four become hard (for children and adults) to manage and make it too easy for some children to ‘tail-gate’, that is to rely on others who are more confident or work more quickly.

• (ideally) collaborative

Children should be encouraged to:

To enable this, teachers should try to draw on children’s ‘funds of knowledge’, a term used by Gonzales, Moll

• be divergent and follow their own lines of enquiry or interest, so that their knowledge is extended into

I suggest that, to encourage children’s creativity and engagement, homework should be: • enjoyable; • child-led; • different from school work;

27

28

new, often unfamiliar, areas, rather than what the teacher demands; and • use different ways of recording their work, such as drawings, different types of writing, photographs, graphs, models, video or powerpoint presentations with reading, almost inevitably, taking place in a meaningful context.

Teachers need to be sensitive to personal circumstances and family and cultural concerns. Otherwise, I suggest that the topic does not matter much as long as the children are interested. Possible broad areas might include: • the local neighbourhood; • animals or birds; • our families; • different countries; • space; • toys and games;

PrimaryFirst

• music and dancing; • vehicles; or • food However, a more specific focus within such broad topics is required if children are to know what questions to ask and what to research and do, particularly if there is little adult support at home. Teachers may initially need to prove a strong steer on this, though, as children become more experienced at this way of working, they will get used to deciding such a focus and selecting more sophisticated areas to study.

I suggest that children should be allowed to decide how much they want to do. This will help to avoid too much stress and enable those with additional needs to take part. However, a minimum expectation will need to be agreed each week with the teacher, if momentum is to be maintained. The appropriate length of any topic will depend on the age of the children and their experience of working in this way. But five and six year olds can

sustain this over a two or three week period and older children over several weeks, though interest in any such project will flag at some point. Some children may also like to adopt a similar approach over holiday periods.

Children should be expected to complete such projects largely at their own pace and then come together in school to share their findings with other children and the teacher - perhaps on the lines of ‘something I/we found out that’s really interesting’ or presenting their finished work. Information is readily available through the internet (and all too easy to cut and paste) so, as children become more used to this type of work, they should increasingly be expected to discuss their work with other people, adults or other children, who can ask questions, challenge their conclusions and suggest new ideas.

I suggest that such sessions should take place at least every week to maintain interest and decide on new lines of enquiry. This also, importantly, gives teachers the opportunity to provide additional feedback and support, for those who are finding it difficult. If schools are able to make devices available to those who do not have them at home, the availability of hardware can be addressed to some extent. If children do not have enough space and time at home, schools might consider sessions where some children can work with adult support in school but out of school hours, alongside or instead of booster classes which tend to offer more of what children experience in school.

Working in this way provides the chance for home learning to become parallel to what happens in school, rather than just ‘more of the same’; and to be more meaningful and engaging for children so that they become both more independent and, ideally, able to work in groups, so fostering a sense of collective agency and achievement.

While, like any good teaching, such an approach requires careful planning, much of the detailed planning can, and should, be in the hands of the children, helping them to develop good work habits.

Moreover, it does not involve teachers having to mark

endless worksheets of sums and spellings. In terms of assessment, it is vital that, if children are to see home learning as different from schoolwork, teachers do not insist on grading the results. But the work must be celebrated and assessed (in a more general sense) if it is to be seen as important and given status by children and their parents.

The lockdown has highlighted some possibilities for how young children’s desire to learn can be drawn on and encouraged; and their sense of agency enhanced.

In suggesting this approach so that homework provides greater breadth and enrichment of children’s learning, I emphasize that this is not a substitute for breadth and balance in the formal school curriculum. A change of thinking on the part of many teachers will be required, which is never easy, and these are only suggestions, to be adapted according to specific contexts. But I hope to have offered some pointers to how homework can be made more child-friendly and meaningful for primaryage children, while being manageable for teachers.

References EEF (Education Endowment Foundation) (2020) Best evidence on supporting students to learn remotely. London, EEF. Gonzales, N., L. Moll and C. Amanti (2005) Funds of Knowledge. Mahwah, Lawrence Erlbaum.

Hattie, J. (2012) Visible learning for teachers: maximising impact on learning. London, Routledge.

Holte, K. L. (2016) Homework in primary school: could it be made more child-friendly? Studia paedagogica, 21 (4), 13-33.

Müller, L-M. and G. Goldenberg (2020) A review of research evidence on school closures and international approaches to education during the COVID-19 pandemic. London, Chartered College of Teaching available at https://my.chartered. college/wpcontent/uploads/2020/05/CCTReport150520_ FINAL.pdf Dr Tony Eaude established and runs ‘New Perspectives’ a small, independent educational consultancy.

29

30

Dear Headteacher...

These letters and emails were written to a head teacher from a large east London primary school during the lockdown period caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dear Headteacher, The impact of covid-19 was very stressful towards my mental health and I was very concerned about the drastic change in society. During the first week of lockdown, I was quite ill which made me feel weak and anxious. In that moment, there were many questions in my head:

I tried to find ways to occupy the children to keep them busy, which will make them happy in doing so such as poster-making, scrapbooking, etc. I started to re-organise the house with the kids by redecorating rooms and the garden shed, in which they contributed by providing various wonderful ideas.

Anjeleena Ramgolaam (LSA -SEND)

• What will happen to my kids?

• Who will look after them if anything happens to me?

• What to tell or not tell my youngest child?

• When will the schools open?

• Will there be any changes in the news?

Those questions would cause many sleepless nights.

More often, I was feeling lonely as all the social interactions were decreased. As I am a sociable person I like to go out, meet friends and explore new places. For me not being able to do all my favourites things made me feel so down. During the pandemic, I went back to work after a month, and I felt happy that I am going to meet the children and the staff. But unfortunately, that day, I felt disheartened due to the school corridors being too quiet, the hub was empty, and the playground was lifeless. I felt quite emotional as I have never seen the school so empty and I missed the children’s vibrant noises.

After couple of weeks, I felt better and was back on my feet. Both of my children were feeling quite disturbed as one was dealing with sleeping issues and the other was affected emotionally. I had to be strong and take care of both children. I chose to read a mindfulness book to help me cope mentally during the lockdown. I learnt various positive ways to change my attitude towards the pandemic and it helped me deal with difficult situations better.

Dear Headteacher, For me, lockdown has meant that for the first time in ages I have had the time needed to complete the admin type tasks that come with teaching, and so in a way has felt as though I have finally been given a chance to breathe and slow down, as well as get all my work done. My favourite time in the week is calling all the children in my class, not to discuss work necessarily but just to connect on a personal level, and away from the normal rush to fit everything into a weekly timetable, we can just talk to them and get to hear their thoughts and feelings – it brightens up lockdown immeasurably.

The longer lockdown has lasted however, I have noticed a shift in the public’s perception of teachers and sadly feel as though once again teachers have been labelled as ‘lazy’ in response to voicing safety concerns about schools reopening. It feels as though no real thought has been given to the fact that yes, we do have a job to do and it just so happens that our job deals with real life little ones and so is extra important, but that we are humans too who are living through this pandemic alongside the rest of society and hold our own fears, difficult family situations and anxieties.

Mia Bull, Teacher

Dear Headteacher,

Dear Headteacher,

Hope this email finds you in good health.

I am Safia Inayat. I am a Learning Support Assistant.

I hope you continue to keep well and everyone is healthy in your family and friends.

On reflection the word SUPPORT has taken on a deeper meaning in my life. Since the lockdown the importance of supporting each other no matter on what level (government to key workers, anybody and everybody) Is very important to see us get through this very difficult, life changing time.

Supporting family, relatives, friends ... For me the realisation of being a consistent adult in supporting our vulnerable children at school.

This time must be very confusing for them...

I am so looking forward to some sort of normality and to be back for our children at school.

Safia Inayat (LSA 1-1 SEND)

Dear Headteacher, During this pandemic I have felt a range of mixed emotions, I was thinking a lot about the safety of my family and trying to keep them safe as possible.

It had affected me mentally and physically. I was also thinking about the children in single parent family and how it could possibly affect them, me being a single parent myself.

Moreover, those who are less fortunate or vulnerable such as the homeless or the elderly not having anyone to speak to also feeling lonely, with everything that has happened it has made me appreciate life much more and try and do better.

During this pandemic it has been stressful and we have to adapt lots to keep us safe . Now government is continuing to ease lockdown provisions so feels life is getting easier. Although we still have to be safe but hopefully we can reopen our school and everything goes smoothly and safe.

We will be providing our support and make all the effort to keep our children safe and well in school.

Afshan Shaikh (TA in KS1)

Dear Headteacher, The best way to describe lockdown is stopping at the top of the Ferris Wheel in anticipation of when it will start back up and your time is over. Lockdown has confirmed that organisation is key – both in the classroom and at home! I’ve found myself working just as hard at home as I do on a ‘normal day’ as a teacher, except this time it isn’t the fun stuff. It’s been report writing, weekly planning, timetables, home learning tasks, more report writing, phone calls to parents/children and the list goes on.

However, it has also consisted of being included in a rota system to support the key worker children. That has been an eye-opening experience as a teacher – mixing with new children of all different ages, working in a new classroom environment, teaching ‘off topic’ and being more creative, and genuinely spending more personal time with these children. This is the way education should be – listening to children needs/wants, teaching them key life skills, being creative and having fun. I’m sure it has not been easy for our key worker children; however, they have shown just how resilient and strong our children really are.

Many thanks,

Having been a teacher for a few years, but new to a leadership role, I am aware of the pressure put on teachers to consistently perform and be ‘outstanding’.

Lockdown for me has proven that schools and teachers play a vital role in not only providing an education but also stability, routine, friendships, hope and guidance for our next generation.

Beatrice Moe Loembe (TA for SEND)

Katie-Nursery teacher and Learning leader for EYFS

It’s helped me lift up my spirit, look forward to the future and think positively.

31

32

Eco learning at Damers First School

by Edd Moore When I first joined Damers School eight years ago, there wasn’t a huge level of environmental awareness across the school. The children did not know about recycling or how to look after their environment, they also did not know where their food came from – they just thought it came from the supermarket! I saw great potential to embed the Eco Schools programme across the school.

Eco-Schools is a global programme engaging 19.5 million children across 67 countries, making it the largest educational programme on the planet. There are now 20,000 schools in England signed up to Eco Schools.

Every class at Damers First School has an Eco ambassador who forms the Eco Crew. Each class makes a termly pledge to help animals, people or the environment giving every child the opportunity to have a voice and speak passionately about environmental issues they believe in. Pledges have included encouraging the community to feed the birds, making Dorchester litter free and encouraging other schools to be involved, encouraging businesses to reduce their single use plastic and devising a Litter Policy for other schools to use in Dorset with Litter Free Dorset. Children at the school have given up their weekends to lobby local businesses on environmental issues. Some of the children even asked for litter pickers for Christmas!

The school has become a leading force on environmental issues with many other schools across Dorset and the rest of the UK wanting to come and see the school and speak to children about what they have learned and see their environmental work.

The Eco Schools programme has had a huge impact on the children’s learning across the school. They

PrimaryFirst

have gained confidence and they believe that what they are doing will make a real difference to the society they live in They have the passion and confidence to stand up in front of a room full of people and talk about the changes they would like to see. They are very determined, and they do not take no for an answer. The skills they are developing are skills they will need as adults. I would like Sustainability to be compulsory in schools, because for me, children learning about the environment is just as important as literacy and numeracy.

Many organisations want to work with us on our environmental campaigns linked to work the children have already done. City to Sea, Refill HQ visited after they had heard about the work the children had done in signing up businesses to Refill Dorset. They interviewed the children and put a video together to inspire other towns across the UK to get on board with Refill.

The school has become an ambassador for Delphis Eco, an ecological cleaning company whose products the school has been using for 4 years. The children speak to other schools about the product getting them to use it. They also sell the product to parents, staff and businesses. They have been filmed speaking about it and the CEO of the company, Mark Jankovich, has visited the school to speak with the children about how he can improve his product. Two of the quotations on the new bottle were written by the children and one of the school cleaners.

The children have been active in getting the local community to recycle - printing cartridges, pens, biscuit wrappers, crisp packets, soap dispensers, baby pouches, helping the environment and raising £1500 towards a bird hide and wildlife area. The school’s

33

34 recycling centre has been so successful that WI volunteers come and help with sorting and boxing up the items to be sent off to be recycled.

The school became an SAS Plastic Free School in May 2018. Children launched Refill Poundbury signing up 25 businesses and appeared on Newsround. They contacted businesses supplying school fruit and milk asking if fruit could come in card boxes and milk in glass bottles. They wrote to all local head teachers asking them to become plastic free schools. They put pressure on Brace of Butchers about plastic used and this business implemented their ideas, establishing a zero-waste free shop.

They created posters giving the local community ideas on how they could reduce plastic. In July Dorchester became the 3rd location in Dorset to achieve this status. The children have set up a steering group with influential members of the town to help them carry on their Plastic Free work making Dorchester as green as possible. They are part of Dorset Council’s climate change panel.

the broken ones fixed, closing roads to town centre once a month, every school to have their own Ridan Food Waste Composter with an idea that the compost could fuel cars. The Council realises the power of their message and the influence they have had.

The children have been to Clarence House, have spoken with HRH Prince Charles, and Jane Goodall about their environmental work. Through the hard work and determination of Edd and his pupils, Damers First School have achieved Plastic Free School status from Surfers Against Sewage, as well as inspiring their community to secure Plastic Free Community status. They have taken their work to Westminster – where they met Michael Gove, they have appeared on Newsround, and they have won several awards, including Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots Award Educational Environmental Institution of the Year 2019, Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Schools Champion 2019 and Eco Schools Primary School of the Year 2019.

A Year 3 class, as a pledge, took part in a CPRE Green Clean with students from Thomas Hardye School.

They collected 156 plastic bottles and cans using the reverse vending machine. Damers’ children inspired Hardye’s to recycle and set up a green committee. In February 2019 the children went to Westminster to speak with Mr Gove about the importance of an “all in” Deposit Return Scheme.

I found out about the fantastic work of Richard Dunne and the Harmony Curriculum in 2017. I visited Richard’s school to learn more about the seven Principles of Harmony and how it could be used at Damers First School. I went on a four day Harmony Development Course at the Princes Studio of Traditional Art in London. The seven Principles of Harmony were already embedded into our curriculum through the work I have mentioned but wasn’t under the Harmony name officially. In the past year the children have been producing some phenomenal geometry work and have a greater depth in their knowledge of Nature and the World around them.

They know that there are different coloured carrots not just orange ones which links to one of the seven principles, diversity. The children have learned about the many life cycles around them by using the garden and wildlife areas. The Ridan Food Waste Composter has taught them about food decomposing to make compost which can then help the plants grow.

The children are part of Dorset Council’s climate change panel. They presented ideas of how the county could reduce climate change. Ideas included more electric buses, easier access to hire electric bikes and scooters, more electric car charging points and

Garden volunteers from the local community with many years’ experience come and work with children each afternoon. The children have learned where their food comes from by growing vegetables and fruit by seasons and learning what is produced in each season

The children won four awards at the Young Enterprise Fiver Challenge 2018 with their product Waxtastic No Plastic, an alternative to cling film. They sold the product at local events raising £4500 which financed a school nature area. The school has been included in “Plastic Game Changer” by Amanda Keetley which showcases the work they have done to reduce single use plastic. The children hope that it will inspire other schools and community groups to use their ideas to start their own plastic free campaigns.

PrimaryFirst

as well as rotating the beds. They have then taken this knowledge home and had a go with their parents or even taken on an allotment themselves. They have also learned how to use these vegetables to cook a dish in the school kitchen.

The children of Damers First School are fantastic ambassadors for how we would all like the world to be.

Top Tips

• Make an action plan of things you are going to work towards • Sign up for Eco Schools and follow their seven steps • Inspire staff, parents and the local community to get involved • Embed environmental work into the school curriculum • Take part in national campaigns such as Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean

• Find a staff leader with the enthusiasm, drive and initiative to take the group forward • Create a passionate group of eco warriors • Make an audit of environmental work in the school, celebrate what you do and improve other areas

Edd Moore is a Year 3 teacher and Eco Coordinator at Damers First School in Dorchester, Dorset part of the Wessex MAT.

35

36

Establishing a purposeful and valuable School Newspaper

by Emma Seaton “Read all about it!� is a phrase which is synonymous with the old traditional-style newspapers; it is the sound of them being sold on street corners, announcing the latest headlines and creating an exciting buzz for the eager readers. Now, with the modern age of technology, where the latest headlines can pop up instantaneously on your screen and where social media spreads news like wildfire, the newspaper industry is already considered by many to be somewhat struggling, especially the more locallyfocused and subject-specific newspapers.

and ears of the school and therefore I could simply oversee the project with just an editorial and perhaps digitally-creative role.

At our school, we have always stressed the importance of children keeping up-to-date with current affairs and, where suitable, reading authentic newspaper articles on different topics; as a result, they learn to identify key features of journalistic writing, they understand how writing can be manipulated to show bias and they are able to explore topics of the past (and present) through the eyes of people who experience them.

We began by selecting pupils to make up the School Newspaper Editorial Team; anyone can submit articles, artwork and pretty much anything else they find interesting to the school newspaper, but these children would be responsible for writing specific pieces on subjects suggested to them by their peers, such as reporting on school and community news, writing film reviews, or helping give child-friendly information on commonly-debated global affairs. As children across our large 4-form entry school began writing pieces, sending submissions and engaging with our new whole-school project, some of the first submissions came in the form of suggestions for a name for the newspaper; from the more traditional titles to more obscure and witty ones, finally The Bannockburn Bugle was chosen by the team members for its alliterative appeal and noble connotations.

In Autumn Term 2018, as part of my school role as Community Leader, I was tasked with creating a new school newspaper, as whilst there had been one at our school many years previously, it was something our Junior Leadership Team had suggested and our Headteacher was committed to fulfilling this idea for them. As someone who once aspired to be a journalist as a teenager, I jumped at the opportunity to coordinate a team of children, who would be the eyes

In our first year of publishing, the school newspaper was an open table for everyone on the team, but on finding myself sometimes spending hours editing font sizes and playing with text boxes to make the pages fuller (I must add I am not familiar with publishing software and so design everything using standard Microsoft Word), by the second year of circulation it was decided that each team member would be solely responsible for one page of the 8-page spread.

PrimaryFirst

We devised a system where each team member became a specialist editor for their page’s spread, for example having titles such as Community Editor, Arts Editor, Eco Editor etc – titles which can change depending on where we see fit and appropriate as to what will feature in each termly edition.

In weekly after-school meetings, the team and I read through the ideas and submissions sent in via the exclusively established school newspaper email address; we then collate them and discuss which pieces can suit each section of the paper and plan additional pieces of text that can be included on their respective pages. Ideas are shared and debated and over the course of approximately 10 weeks, a termly edition of the school newspaper is created. For the team and me, however, the true beauty comes from the final step of the process – publishing and printing it.

I would thoroughly recommend all schools try to establish something similar, to keep the fires of writing with purpose, reading for pleasure and the tradition of valuable community newspapers alight.

Emma Seaton is a MFL Teacher and Community & Partnerships Leader at Bannockburn Primary School, London.

We have been fortunate enough to have been able to afford a professional newspaper printing company to print our copies of our newspaper for us; the silky texture and off-white cast of the genuine newsprint paper makes the whole project feel that bit more professional and satisfying. That said, with the outbreak of Coronavirus preventing us from completing our Spring edition, we have decided to create a combined Spring/Summer 2020 online edition of The Bannockburn Bugle, which is another way we can help keep our school community connected at this difficult time.

Copies of our school newspaper are made available to children, parents and any school visitors who request one. They are placed in reading corners in all classrooms and we even have some regular subscribers in the form of our School Governing Body. In the last few days of each term, the ‘Bugle Team’ eagerly await the end of the school day, when they can grab their newspaper bag filled with crisp copies and chant proudly across the playground “Come get your Bugle here!” and “Read all about it!” – the buzz of excitement on the playground makes all our hard work worthwhile.

37

38

A tribute to John Coe, former editor of Primary First

by Robert Young

It is extraordinary that someone into their 90s should want to edit a journal! Almost all members of the teaching profession at the point of retirement in their mid-60s hang up their boots and settle for a life of relative ease and comfort, free of the angst associated with educational ventures. But not for John. No single person could have done more for the profession than John and a critical aspect of this engagement has been the channeling of his energies and expertise into the role of editor of Primary First.

John’s voice as editor draws on a distinguished record of service to the profession, stretching back to 1949 when he qualified as a primary teacher. Two headships were followed up by two appointments in the local inspectorate, the first in the West Riding of Yorkshire and the second in Oxfordshire, both areas of the UK which were perceived in the 1960s and 1970s as beacons of excellence in the primary sector and both providing inspiration for much of the enlightened philosophy behind the famous Plowden Report of 1967. At the point of retirement, the challenge of initial teacher education beckoned and John took on the programme leadership of the Primary PGCE at the London University Institute of Education at a very stressful time when central government was embarking on the process of establishing a foothold in curriculum design and accountability. His intention to retire from full- time work was thwarted by an invitation, readily accepted, from Oxford Brookes University to contribute to initial teacher education and to design and direct courses for teaching assistants.

John’s role in NAPE has been all-pervasive from its inception in May 1980 when he was one of its

architects alongside a group of heads and inspectors who deeply cared about the way in which primary education was perceived as the Cinderella of the educational system, subservient to the secondary sector in terms of its preparatory role and undervalued as a critical phase of education in its own right. Since 1980, John has taken on all the officer roles on the NAPE Council including two stints as chair and his formidable commitment to the wellbeing of the organisation is reflected in the fact that he was willing to maintain the editorship of Primary First until January of this year. His editorials, in addition to all the articles/papers he has drafted over the years, reveal the sharpest of minds and the accumulated wisdom of years of experience.

But his reflections are always more than a dry analysis of the current scene – they are infused with quality of concern for the entitlements of childhood. This passion for a concept of education which is not constrained by the requirements of a high-stakes testing regime and which does justice to the full breadth of human endeavour has consistently informed his approach to educational commentary.

Moreover, as editor he has steered the journal to acquire a powerful voice, highly accessible in its format, occupying a distinctive position between the traditional academic journal at one end of the spectrum and the tips for teachers newsletter at the other. We are indebted to John for his years of service and in particular for providing the energy and the acumen to co-ordinate its publication, developing it as NAPE’s flagship. As a model of what can be achieved into your 90s, John is an inspiration and long may he continue to be!

National Association for Primary Education

NAPE promotes the very best opportunities for children's learning through: • sharing exemplary teaching approaches • bringing together groups of colleagues for support • developing a strong professionalism • providing conferences with speakers of national reputation • publishing Primary First, a reflective and informative journal • enabling debate about innovative teaching

NAPE is an important national voice for early and primary education.

We influence government and its agencies through: • engaging with consultations and formulating responses • participating in discussions at the highest level with other organisations • Issuing media releases and influencing public opinion • responding to media enquiries • participating in radio and TV interviews

Members are kept up to date and fully involved through the NAPE website www.nape.org.uk By joining NAPE you become part of a nationwide movement to improve the status and resourcing of early years and primary education. You will gain not only from a fellowship of shared aims and expertise but also from an increasing range of benefits available to members and school communities.

Join us now through our website or by emailing to nationaloffice@nape.org.uk The office administrator at 01604 647646 will be happy to answer any queries. Payment can be made through BACS, Paypal or cheque.

• Individual membership £30 • School Community membership, Group 1 £40, Group 2 and above £55 • No fee is due from student teachers.

Widely recognised as a leader in its field Widely recognised asaaleader leaderininitsits field Widely recognised as field (and economically priced) (and priced) (andeconomically economically priced).

Christopher Jarman’s Christopher Christopher Jarman’s Jarman’s scheme for the scheme for the teaching of handwriting teachingfor of the handwriting scheme teachingmatching of handwriting matching the Primary Framework for the Primary Framework for Literacy. for matching the Primary Framework Literacy Literacy DEVELOPING

DEVELOPING DEVELOPING HANDWRITING HANDWRITING HANDWRITING SKILLS SKILLS SKILLS TeachersResource ResourceBook Bookwith withfull fullset setofof12 Teachers Teachers Resource with full 12 workbooks andBook copybooks forset of 12 workbooks and copybooks workbooks and copybooks forunder underfives fivesupwards. upwards for under fives upwards The Resource Book contains 150 pages on

The resource Book contains 150 pages on theresource history of handwriting, things to do The Book contains 150 pages onand the history of handwriting, things to do and interesting about thethings subject. the history offacts handwriting, to There do andare interesting facts about subject. There are 51 51 photocopiable copythe pages. interesting facts about the subject. There are 51 photocopiable copy pages. photocopiable copy pages.

The (£55.00 NAPE members) includes: Thecomplete completeset setcosts costs £65.00 £80 (£72.00 for for NAPE members) and and includes: The complete set costs £65.00 (£55.00 for NAPE members) and includes: Resource bookforforteachers teachers– -available availableseparately separatelyatat£30.00 £30.00each each 1.1. A A Resource book 1.2. A Six Resource book -for teachers – available separately at £30.00 each copy books available separately at £4.50 each 2. Six copy books – available separately at £4.00 each 2. Six copy books – available separately at £4.00 each at £4.00 each photocopiable work books - available separately 3.3. SixSix photocopiable work books – available separately at £3.00 each 3. SixP&P photocopiable work books – available separately at £3.00 each on all orders £5.00 for orders up to £50 and £8.00 for larger orders.

All prices include post and packing All prices include post and packing For a sale or return pack contact: For a sale or return pack contact: NAPE at 01604 647646 For a sale or return pack contact: or at 01604 647646 NAPE NAPE at 01604 647646 orFREEPOST orNAPE MID 24319 FREEPOST FREEPOST Moulton NAPE MID 24319 NAPE MID 24319 Northampton NN3 7BR

Moulton, Moulton, Northampton NN3 7BR Email nationaloffice@nape.org.uk Northampton NN3 7BR Email nationaloffice@nape.org.uk Email nationaloffice@nape.org.uk

PrimaryFirst PrimaryFirst PrimaryFirst

available Parents Also Guide £4.00at

Also at £3.00/ incavailable post & packing £3.00/ inc post & packing