Learning through play, using social bubbles across Primary School.
If we looking at opening Primary Schools part-time, one option would be to group children into social bubbles with their siblings and another sibling group, obviously in some cases a group would include 3 sibling groups or children who are the only children in their household of primary age.
These groups would then be monitored by 1 or 2 Learning Professionals (teachers, early years practitioners, pupil support staff).
Teachers would plan and resources activities and opportunities for several groups. Depending on the scientific advice teachers might be able to rotate between groups (possibly with everyone masked). Please note that teaching whilst masked would be difficult for many.
Pros
Children would have contact with fewer others (compared to scenarios where they attend in year groups).
Therefore children could undertake learning through play (which is important across the Primary age range).
They could develop social and group work skills (which would be more difficult to maintain in socially distanced setting where they attend in year groups).
All of the pros of attending school would be applicable in this scenario, for example:
It would be possible to monitor children’s educational progress and provide learning accordingly.
It would be possible to monitor and provide support to vulnerable children.
It would be possible to identify newly vulnerable children.
It would be possible to provide greater support and communication to parents. Particularly those whose economic situation, educational attainment or home language prevents them from fully accessing the various methods by which schools are providing home learning.
Children could access school lunches and school provided breakfast and snacks (e.g those funded by third sector organisations like magic breakfast).
Cons (with some solutions):
Children would still only be able to attend part time (no school would have enough staff to cover splitting children into groups of 6-8 for the entire day). This would therefore impact on parents considerably.
Obviously key worker care would need to continue alongside this model.
Learning Professionals with Children will probably not have adequate childcare to work normal hours.
Learning Professionals may need to self isolate. Therefore staffing this model continuously may be tricky.
Teachers would need time to plan and resource this model. They would need further time to assess children’s learning. So their timetabling would need to include non-class contact time. Providing extra home-learning would be not be possible. However there will be some Learning Professionals continuing to shield and they could provide further home learning and virtual out of school support.
Many primary school teachers are not used to planning continuously for cross-age range groupings, however they will have the support of their colleagues.
Children may have to return to school and be in the care of adults they are not familiar with.
Some Learning Professionals may be anxious about the skills and knowledge needed to work with and support the complete Primary age range.
Cleaning and swapping of resources would be necessary after each session, this could be time consuming. Learning Professionals could not be expected to undertake classroom cleaning.
Not all schools would have the space to split children into small, effectively social distanced groups, although use can be made of meeting rooms and school halls etc.
These groups would then be monitored by 1 or 2 Learning Professionals (teachers, early years practitioners, pupil support staff).
Teachers would plan and resources activities and opportunities for several groups. Depending on the scientific advice teachers might be able to rotate between groups (possibly with everyone masked). Please note that teaching whilst masked would be difficult for many.
Pros
Children would have contact with fewer others (compared to scenarios where they attend in year groups).
Therefore children could undertake learning through play (which is important across the Primary age range).
They could develop social and group work skills (which would be more difficult to maintain in socially distanced setting where they attend in year groups).
All of the pros of attending school would be applicable in this scenario, for example:
It would be possible to monitor children’s educational progress and provide learning accordingly.
It would be possible to monitor and provide support to vulnerable children.
It would be possible to identify newly vulnerable children.
It would be possible to provide greater support and communication to parents. Particularly those whose economic situation, educational attainment or home language prevents them from fully accessing the various methods by which schools are providing home learning.
Children could access school lunches and school provided breakfast and snacks (e.g those funded by third sector organisations like magic breakfast).
Cons (with some solutions):
Children would still only be able to attend part time (no school would have enough staff to cover splitting children into groups of 6-8 for the entire day). This would therefore impact on parents considerably.
Obviously key worker care would need to continue alongside this model.
Learning Professionals with Children will probably not have adequate childcare to work normal hours.
Learning Professionals may need to self isolate. Therefore staffing this model continuously may be tricky.
Teachers would need time to plan and resource this model. They would need further time to assess children’s learning. So their timetabling would need to include non-class contact time. Providing extra home-learning would be not be possible. However there will be some Learning Professionals continuing to shield and they could provide further home learning and virtual out of school support.
Many primary school teachers are not used to planning continuously for cross-age range groupings, however they will have the support of their colleagues.
Children may have to return to school and be in the care of adults they are not familiar with.
Some Learning Professionals may be anxious about the skills and knowledge needed to work with and support the complete Primary age range.
Cleaning and swapping of resources would be necessary after each session, this could be time consuming. Learning Professionals could not be expected to undertake classroom cleaning.
Not all schools would have the space to split children into small, effectively social distanced groups, although use can be made of meeting rooms and school halls etc.
Why the contribution is important
There is no doubt in my mind that the school closure and the lockdown will cause a widening of the attainment gap and greater educational inequity.
Solutions must be found to mitigate this situation.
Children learn through play, direct teaching and their peers. This model allows for semblance of these aspects of learning whilst maintaining a social distanced school setting.
It is especially important to provide a variety of learning opportunities to children living in poverty or areas of multiple deprivation. We need to continue to provide learning which develops children’s language, problem solving skills, and their social and emotional skills whilst engaging them in learning, as these factors affect many children’s whole experience of education throughout their school careers. Therefore we need to look at solutions which enable Learning Professionals to support this for all children.
This model is important because children need a variety of scaffolded learning and that is difficult to provide to young children virtually, especially if their parents are attempting to work from home. It is impossible to provide to some children who do not have access to the internet due to living in poverty.
Many Children living in Poverty will not be able access to the resources and opportunities provided through learning through play during lockdown and this is a way of mitigating that situation.
Addressing the impact school closures will have had on Educational Equity must be part of the conversation on how to reopen them
Solutions must be found to mitigate this situation.
Children learn through play, direct teaching and their peers. This model allows for semblance of these aspects of learning whilst maintaining a social distanced school setting.
It is especially important to provide a variety of learning opportunities to children living in poverty or areas of multiple deprivation. We need to continue to provide learning which develops children’s language, problem solving skills, and their social and emotional skills whilst engaging them in learning, as these factors affect many children’s whole experience of education throughout their school careers. Therefore we need to look at solutions which enable Learning Professionals to support this for all children.
This model is important because children need a variety of scaffolded learning and that is difficult to provide to young children virtually, especially if their parents are attempting to work from home. It is impossible to provide to some children who do not have access to the internet due to living in poverty.
Many Children living in Poverty will not be able access to the resources and opportunities provided through learning through play during lockdown and this is a way of mitigating that situation.
Addressing the impact school closures will have had on Educational Equity must be part of the conversation on how to reopen them
by P1Teacher on May 06, 2020 at 10:54AM
Comments
Log in or register to add comments and rate ideas