School Readiness/ Learning continuity

School readiness and Learning Continuity Planning

A continuity plan (used frequently in the business world and referred to as a 'business continuity plan') refers to a planned process that allows your school to continue to function or to quickly resume in the event of a major disruption such as COVID-19. This is a plan of action a school puts in place that can be relied upon in the event of an emergency or critical incident. It outlines the policies, legal expectations, procedures, and instructions the school will follow, covering items such as school processes, resources and equipment, human resources (your staff including external contractors), school partners, and more. A continuity plan will be different for every school but might include evacuation plans, communication protocols, contact lists, equipment and resource inventories, and anything else that would be important for members of the internal and broader school community in a crisis.

Your school might set up a finished public of information like this one that explains expectations for students and parents from NSW school OLMC or this information hub from Mentone Grammar in Melbourne which also contains their learning strategy etc.

Important ideas

1. Put People First

The health and well-being of your staff and students and their parents is your top concern. It’s possible that COVID-19 will cause some members of the school to become sick and it force others into quarantine. Address their immediate needs first, and then begin to think about operations with a online or remote school community. It is critical to establish a strategy that enables employees to continue to function without endangering them. You’ll want to verify that you have the tools, technology, capacity, and security measures in place to support a large remote workforce. It may also be necessary to offer greater flexibility to normal working expectations.

Key questions:

• What method/technology will you use to continue to communicate?
• How will you ensure staff and students are ready to work remotely? for example do you need to survey to find out if they are ready with home equipment, skills to use it and internet connectivity. Do you have an alternative plan if they are not?
• How can you offer technical support? if you can't what alternate plan will you put in place?
• Do you have knowledge about how well prepared your staff and students are to work from home? How could you find this out?
• Will you need to provide or source additional training for your staff for remote learning or to use unfamiliar technology?

Many existing resources could help you such as Google G Suite for Education online training resources

Useful Links

This article about how to prepare for working from home by Stephen Heppell might be useful.

This video about preparing young learners for home learning suggests some useful protocols for example conference from public spaces (rather than bedrooms)

2. Assemble the key staff and advisors

A continuity plan is only as effective as the people who put it into action. Thus it’s critically important to be specific about who will be directly involved, from the plan’s owner to those it affects. Getting these people on board during the planning stages can help with creating a stronger, clearer plan and a consistent message. Appoint at least one staff leader or selected team members to devise a response strategy and coordinate pandemic readiness activities. It may also be necessary to identify backup staff.

While others may be involved in the plan’s execution, it’s very important that the most senior leadership is involved and seen to be involved in decision-making. This will help to calm any fear and misinformation that can arise in such scenarios.

3. Communicate

When faced with a catastrophe, people want clear, straightforward steps that they can follow. It’s best to leave as little to interpretation as possible. Consider diverse perspectives (can all members of your community access the information in one form or will you need to provide in other formats and or in other languages?). Make the plan detailed and clear. Create a communications plan that includes providing the school community with regular situation updates as well as actions taken. Take care to make sure information is factual and comes from reliable sources. For example https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert and or one from your relevant educational department or organisation.

Read this example email to parents from a secondary school.

4. Review existing plans

Before taking any action, pause to review your existing plans if any are already in place. If they’re sufficiently thorough, they should address a variety of situations that could disrupt the normal operation of the school, including potential pandemics.

5. Prioritize support for the key expectations and responsibilities of staff and students

Next you’ll want to assess your school processes, determine which areas are vulnerable. You can start by identifying the critical services and information you need to deliver to the school community. This is obviously teaching, learning and assessment and the well being of all involved.

This example slide show show how one school has been communicating this idea to their staff

Key questions:

• What are the legal implications of online and remote learning especially concerning resource distribution and copyright. Read this important information for schools from the smartcopying website.
• How will learning be managed? through digital or other means? Where will it be stored, monitored and feedback given? For example the school might expect students to keep a learning journal, submit work online via a school learning management system (LMS) or equivalent such as Google Classroom, via existing school processes such as using Microsoft One Note, contribute to online chat daily, log in to video conferencing sessions or participate in a phone call.
• How will expectations be set? What method will you use to give students timetables or schedules to follow whilst away from school? What expectations will you provide around assessment?
• How will are your staff knowledgeable in online safety and protective behaviours and protocols? if not considering recommending they visit:

1. e-safety commisioner website
2. the Australian Curriculum e-safety curriculum connection.

6. Planning (especially if you are doing this for the first time)

Planning may include brainstorming with your key staff members and then creating a collaborative document that can be finalised as your definitive plan. A small school on the NSW South Coast, St Mary's Primary School, Moruya shared some of their planning with DTIF and have given us permission to share it with you below. This link

Preparing for a school closure: School Leader Guide by Pivot PL may also be useful reading.

For longer term planning see the examples from James Nash State High School and Balgowlah North Public School, NSW below.