Report shares advice on managing second Covid wave

A report from Edurio explores feedback from school staff, pupils and parents, to identify which strategies worked best during lockdown and provide actionable solutions and strategies to help manage future disruption.

The report, based on the feedback of over 45,000 teachers, students and parents across 277 schools in England, revealed that many pupils felt they had made good progress with learning regardless of whether content had been delivered via live online lessons or offline methods. This insight is important given increasing concerns regarding the digital divide between disadvantaged students and their peers, and suggests that more accessible learning provisions can be sought in the event of a return to remote learning, in the face of local lockdowns, or to facilitate learning for pupils who continue to shield.

Amongst the findings, it was also discovered that recorded lessons rather than live delivery had a higher positive impact on pupils’ feeling of progression and enabled families to share devices. For primary schools, longer written tasks were one of the most popular forms of learning during lockdown.
 
As a result, the report recommends technology should be used to enable work rather than fully relying on it — the internet is helpful for communication and feedback, but workbooks and drawing might work out better when technology access is limited.

According to respondents, a 5-6-hour daily workload for pupils learning remotely led to highest learning progress and well-being levels. With this in mind, the new report recommends that - in case of school closures - school leaders should implement a clear learning plan that is aligned between teaching staff and targets 5-6 hours of learning per day.
 
Other key recommendations within the report included treating parents as partners in learning — assisting them with technology when needed, communicating the learning objectives with them, and help them participate in the learning process, especially in primary school.

It also suggests designating a member of staff to each child to make sure every family is regularly checked upon, as well as building a plan of staff responsibilities and communication channels for various disruption scenarios.
 
Individual feedback from staff, parents, and pupils revealed a desire for upholding the current hygiene standards, increased use of technology and flexible working practices beyond the disruption.

Emotional well-being support from school leaders was deemed more important by staff than methodological or admin support.

Feeling lonely (23 per cent of primary pupils and 24 per cent of secondary pupils) or demotivated (21 per cent primary school pupils and 24 per cent secondary school pupils) had the highest negative impact on pupil stress levels.

Clear and prompt communication from the school was the most important factor in parent and staff satisfaction with the school's actions to manage Covid-19 disruption.