COVID- Catch UP
THE HERON WAY RESPONSE TO COVID-19
Children across the globe have experienced a huge amount of disruption since the COVID pandemic hit 2 years ago - education has changed for all learners. At Heron Way our response to the challenges over the past two years has been exceptional - with our remote learning and key worker provision spear heading our early response. As a school we were already using Google Classroom prior to the pandemic and in February 2020 - all staff meetings focused on how it could be used should schools ever need to close as a result of COVID-19. This type of forward planning by the school resulted in a robust home learning experience that ensured the best possible outcomes for our children under the highly novel environment. The school coupled this with frequent parent and carer surveys - allowing us to really understand the new stressors the pandemic was having on our families. It became very clear the our community needed us to provide shelter, food, financial support, health advice and general social wellbeing. The information below will hopefully capture the school's determination to conquer COVID!
WHAT DID OUR COMMUNITY THINK OF OUR RESPONSE?
"Only that you’ve all been so amazing. The work being set is manageable (for me with a 2 year old in tow) and it gives us all a focus each day. My child has enjoyed the work and I can see improvements, as I would expect to if he went to school. Eternally grateful to you all for easing all the concerns I had about isolation in terms of my child's education and progress."
"The work and guidelines have been great and easy to follow to support her - the parent notes have been great thank you!"
"We are very happy at home, the children are engaged and working hard!"
"I think that the school has done a fantastic job over the last couple of years and got everyone through a really tough time. There has always been help, support and great communication to the parents."
"The school has been a huge support through the pandemic. The leadership and communications have been very reassuring during such an unsettling time."
"I think Heron Way's online learning provision is exceptionally good. All of the staff and teachers have gone above and beyond! Thank you."
When planning our “catch-up” programme we asked ourselves three key questions:
Who needs to catch up?
Who is best placed to implement the catch-up provision?
How do you provide a catch-up programme that is sustained and not tokenistic?
We mulled over these questions for a long time, thinking hard about how to target support and ensure that it met my overarching objective of learning recovery. We therefore came up with three answers to the above questions:
Every child should be given the opportunity to recover any learning that might have been lost as a result of lockdown.
The staff and teachers at this school are, without doubt, the best placed professionals to meet the needs of individual children.
This is not a six-week “quick fix” intervention - the interventions need to be sustained and planned over a number of years.
Our Response:
75 Chrome Books purchased and distributed to our neediest families
3 wireless hubs purchased and 100gb of data provided to families for 4G internet access
Worked alongside parents and carers to determine the social, educational, emotional and mental needs of children
Subject leaders/teachers updated curriculum plans/maps for what has not been taught. Identifying the ‘sticky knowledge’ that helps to know and remember more
All planning updated in Jun 2020 to highlight crucial objectives that needed covering before the next Phase of Learning
All Year 6 pupils were in school for a term before heading to secondary school in Jun/Jul 2020
Extended the school by 30 minutes from October 2020 to May 2021.
Introduced a summer catch-up program over the 2020 summer holidays - See here
A continued robust remote learning offer - See here
Copy of Heron Way - Covid Catch-Up Funding - Jul 2021 (1).pdf