This isn’t an answer to everyone’s prayers or even backed with any evidence base, this is me composing my thoughts about the way forward post Covid-19. My new friend (whom I’m yet to meet in the flesh) Rae Snape suggested I put my thoughts into a blog following a great discussion on Ed Lead Collective chat on Twitter about uniting voices for change. So here I am!
Before March 20th 2020, the day English schools closed to the majority of pupils, I had felt we were losing our parental engagement to the busyness of day to day life. More and more parents were struggling to devote time to their children’s learning. More and more parents were becoming digitally distracted and seemed to have lost the wonder of just being with their children, listening to them and talking to them.
As a larger than average primary school, we struggle to have the space to invite parents into assemblies or presentations en masse. With a curriculum taking up every spare minute we hadn’t engaged parents the way we should have. The same, very small group of parents consistently engaged and I could feel this having a negative impact on relationships. I had already started to jot down ideas to move forward with and then closure happened.
In the space of a few days we had revamped our website, set up home learning pages for each year group and started to develop resources to share, that all pupils could access. With most teachers working from home this evolved quickly. As leaders we set our expectations with compassion in mind. We recognised that many parents would be working from home and many teachers had their own young children to manage. We set lots of activities that would encourage fun times, memory making and enjoying the outdoors. Of course, at this point, we were unsure how long it would continue.
What we witnessed was a greater engagement than we had seen before. Our FaceBook page was buzzing with the excitement of family times and new experiences. Families were cooking together, doing art projects together and enjoying the outdoors together. Teachers were making regular phone calls to each family and the bond was getting stronger and stronger. Teachers felt they knew their families so much better. They recognised their struggles and empathised with their difficulties. They have grown in confidence when dealing with emotive conversations and I have no doubt, they have grown as teachers.
As time went on parents asked for more structure so we listened. We brought in a timetable after Easter to support with routine and every child was given work books. Teachers were still at the end of the phone or email to support and guide. Parents were open with us about what they were finding hard and we were there to help. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and this positivity needs to continue.
We can’t go back to where we were. We need to move forward from this point. During the various conversations over the last few months it has become clear that with the slower pace of life, parents are keen to learn more about how to support their children but many have struggled. Imagine if we could educate parents in the learning process. If we could educate them on what the research says about the impact of reading bedtime stories. If we could give parents the right questions to ask their children and focus on learning rather than doing. If we could pass on our pedagogical understanding in a way that would make it easier for parents to support their child.
So, in conclusion, I will be starting a fresh when we return to normal. My promise is this: We will offer more workshops for parents that are at a time that is flexible for those working. We will continue to use our IT platforms to maintain good communication. We will educate parents on how to support their children, not just by adding a link to the website but by embedding it in our communication strategy. We will aim to get more parents into school to really understand what the children are learning. We will give the parents the tools and questions to really help their child progress and unpick where they may be going wrong. We will set homework that involves the pupils teaching their parents.
I am very excited to see what the future holds and the impact this could have.
Chilled Head Teacher 