Star schools’ blended teaching practices praised by Department for Education
Two Star Academies schools have been highlighted by the Department for Education (DfE) as examples of excellence in blended teaching practices.
The Olive School, Bolton and Tauheedul Islam Boys’ High School (TIBHS) both featured in the recent DfE publication, ‘Remote Education Blended Delivery Case Studies’, which detailed teaching success stories from life in the pandemic.
As schools closed their doors to the majority pupils during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, staff at Star Academies worked tirelessly to meet the educational and wellbeing needs of its pupils.
Teachers at The Olive School, Bolton, identified that stalled language development in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) posed a key risk to pupil progress during lockdown. A significant number of pupils at the school have English as an additional language — a challenge which was ordinarily met by immersing pupils in vocabulary and syntactic language patterns in school.
During lockdown, the school worked to deliver language-rich remote lessons, which prioritised vocabulary development. Each day, pupils received three ‘live’ online lessons, where they could interact with staff and peers at the school. A ‘story of the week’ gave pupils multiple opportunities to hear, repeat and memorise language patterns that would enable them to learn essential language skills.
Children at home continued to read individually from books uploaded to MS Teams, which were differentiated according to their ability to blend sounds. On a weekly basis, all children were called by staff and read a story aloud. Parents could hear the feedback their child received and have some further time with the staff member to discuss their children’s progress.
As a result of the school’s efforts, pupils benefitted from meaningful contact with their teachers, support staff and friends. They followed routines that were well established in school and, through regular practice and repetition of language, they continued to develop their vocabulary.
At TIBHS, staff focused on ensuring pupils did not become disengaged from their learning during the pandemic and that staff workloads remained manageable.
The process began by ensuring that the IT equipment used by pupils and staff was fit for purpose and that every single pupil was able to access remote learning. A member of the Senior Leadership Team was nominated to support staff training and staff were given a bespoke CPD programme using Microsoft Learning Pathways to improve practice.
The school adopted MS OneNote as the default for teachers’ planning, pupils’ recording and for all the school’s business activities. Pupils at home used OneNote so teachers could check and probe their work in real-time whilst pupils in class would work in their own books.
By defining core digital tools and training staff so that everyone understood the applications and the rationale for their use, the school successfully created a commonality of approach. This ensured that pupils were familiar with common expectations across the school.
Teachers also taught pupils face-to-face and online in one virtual classroom where possible, which enabled all pupils to interact with their teachers and peers during lessons. One teacher would focus on those face-to-face and, where a member of support staff was available, they would manage the online ‘chat’ function and support those at home. Where support staff were not available, the teacher would alternate between questioning those studying at home and those present in the classroom.
The school saw exceptionally high levels of pupil engagement which was monitored through work completed in lessons and on OneNote, interaction in lessons, completion of exit and start tasks, as well as summative and formative exams using online tools. Online attendance was 99.5% during lockdown.
The Covid-19 pandemic presented many challenges to the pupils’ education and wellbeing, but staff at Star Academies and its schools worked incredibly hard to minimise any effect of the pandemic on its pupils. Schools are learning from their practice under Covid-19 and are continuing to seek out innovative approaches and tailormade solutions for the long-term benefit of pupils.
Added By: Star Academies | Date Added: 21st Sep 2021 | Posted In: Latest News