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Supporting wellbeing and learning during COVID-19 – approaches from secondary schools
This page was updated on 12/05/2021
We’re sharing brief insights into how schools and PRUs are supporting their pupils and community in response to the difficult circumstances due to COVID-19.
These approaches were written following an engagement phone call and reflect the situation at that time.
Schools and PRUs may be able to adapt these to their own context.
These secondary schools have shared their insights gained while supporting their pupils to continue learning.
Understanding pupil experiences
Risca Community Comprehensive School | Estyn (gov.wales)
In order to enhance staff’s understanding of the issues faced by pupils during the lockdown, leaders at Risca Community Comprehensive School have created a presentation based on pupils’ experiences entitled ‘what it’s like to be the other side of the screen’. The presentation includes ‘talking heads’ videos, as well as audio clips and written pieces where pupils from across the age and ability range talk about their experiences, both positive and negative.
Teaching and learning
Ysgol Uwchradd Aberteifi | Estyn (gov.wales)
Teachers in Ysgol Uwchradd Aberteifi were concerned about pupils’ subject knowledge and their recall of prior learning. They introduced a concept called ‘five a day’. This involves posing five types of questions to pupils on the learning objective for each lesson. These questions are based on topics or skills relevant
to the objective that they learned last lesson, last week, last term and last year, and the link to that day’s lesson.
Online formative assessment
Ysgol Y Creuddyn | Estyn (gov.wales)
In Ysgol y Creuddyn, the mathematics department have been experimenting with approaches to online formative assessment. During live teaching sessions, they have been using various pieces of software such as Google forms and virtual mini whiteboards to test pupils’ understanding of concepts and inform the next steps in teaching. They have also been using multiple choice diagnostic questioning to gauge pupils’ understanding and identify pupils’ misconceptions early on in teaching so that the misconceptions do not become embedded.
Including pupils in curriculum development
Stanwell School | Estyn (gov.wales)
As part of their professional learning programme to support the development of Curriculum for Wales, school leaders plan weekly professional learning sessions and have built in collaborative planning days for leaders. These involve pupils as ‘curriculum consultants’ to support staff to develop a curriculum that is underpinned by their pupils’ interests and needs.
Supporting staff wellbeing
Risca Community Comprehensive School | Estyn (gov.wales)
In order to support staff wellbeing, the headteacher at Risca Community Comprehensive School held training for middle leaders on communication during the crisis. The training focused on how to use email and communicate messages carefully, how to phrase things, how to focus on solutions and how to explain the rationale behind decisions. For example, one activity involved considering a poorly worded email and creating an alternative email that conveyed the same message in a gentler way.
Support pupils with language acquisition
Ysgol Gyfun Gwent Is Coed | Estyn (gov.wales)
Ysgol Gwent Is Coed, a Welsh-medium secondary school, has appointed a full time language support teacher to work with pupils that have joined the school through a language immersion programme. The intention is that this teacher will also support pupils who are struggling with language acquisition across the
curriculum following the lockdown period.
Support for parents regarding arrangements for qualifications
Ysgol Maes Y Gwendraeth
In order to inform parents about the changes to assessment procedures and 2021 qualifications, Ysgol Maes Y Gwendraeth have distributed a bilingual pamphlet to all parents/ carers of year 11,12 and 13 pupils. These pamphlets highlight the main key messages and update parents on their decisions about centre determined grades, the quality assurance processes, the review of grades and the appeals processes. They have also arranged a webinar in Welsh and English for parents providing an update and guidance for them on the alternative assessment arrangements for GCSEs, AS and A levels in summer 2021 and the school timeline. Parents can ask any questions through the chat facility.
Guidance for Year 11 pupils on planning for the future
Brynteg Comprehensive School
To support pupils and maintain their engagement, Brynteg Comprehensive School is bringing forward the guidance and advice programme for pupils in Year 11 to look at what they will do in Year 12. The school has widened the offer and designed a new prospectus to encourage pupils to continue to engage with the school after the submission of grades and help them feel more confident and enthusiastic about the future.
Professional learning on Curriculum for Wales
St Cenydd School
When the first lockdown took hold, St Cenydd School was beginning its professional learning activities based on considering their vision and values in light of Curriculum for Wales. As a result of the circumstances, leaders have had to adapt their plans for professional learning on Curriculum for Wales. Leaders have prepared a series of think pieces, or ‘thunks’, to encourage staff in each AoLE to work together on their area. They have also designed a professional learning programme on various aspects of curriculum design. This includes provision of articles and reading materials as well as talking heads videos and online professional learning sessions on these topics. In addition, leaders have developed a web-based action research portal for staff to support professional learning and development for Curriculum for Wales and to facilitate ‘virtual’ discussions and sharing of ideas.
Parents’ evenings
Lewis Girls’ Comprehensive School
For several years, Lewis Girls’ School has had online portfolios for every pupil. In order to focus parents’ evenings on pupil progress rather than other issues, parents look at these portfolios with teachers during parents’ evenings. The digital nature of this practice means that this has worked particularly well during the pandemic, when the school had to move their parents’ evenings online.
Pupil wellbeing
Crickhowell High School
In order to support pupil and staff wellbeing, one secondary school held a wellbeing day. This did not involve any screen time and was an opportunity for pupils and staff to complete extra-curricular activities, go for walks and so on. It intends to hold a weekly wellbeing afternoon where pupils and staff do not log on. It hopes that this will support examination year group pupils in particular, as they are very anxious at the moment.
Ysgol Gyfun Y Strade
One secondary school has added a ‘Botwm Becso’ (Concern Button) on its website. Pupils can use this button at any time of day or night to report any concerns or worries they may have. The information is confidential to school staff and goes straight to the Assistant Headteacher responsible for wellbeing, who then contacts the pupil and decides how best to support them.
Cathays High School
One secondary school carries out regular wellbeing surveys. It allocates a wellbeing score to each pupil and monitors this carefully. The school has found that it has a higher number of pupils in the vulnerable category than prior to the pandemic. For example, high ability girls in key stage 4 who are anxious about their GCSEs and the pandemic are now included. After identifying vulnerable pupils based on wellbeing scores, the school then puts actions in place to mitigate the wellbeing issues, such as using pastoral leaders and non-teaching staff to make contact with children and families to discuss anxieties.
Distance learning
Cathays High School
One secondary school has divided the online school day into three sessions of one and a half hours. Each day, two of these sessions are for lessons and one session is an independent study session for the completion of work and for pupils to use the various apps to which they have access, such as literacy and numeracy apps. There are also two online assemblies each week, during which pupils are set tasks to complete in their independent study sessions.
During the ‘lesson’ sessions, pupils complete subject specific work. Many teachers are finding it easier to deliver these as live sessions than providing asynchronous materials. During live sessions, teachers are not expected to be speaking for the whole time. Pupils are given tasks to complete and the teacher monitors the completion of work online. The teacher is able to see each pupil’s work and add comments, thereby providing immediate feedback. Pupils are expected to complete most of the work set during the hour and a half session (though they sometimes use the independent study session to complete work). Pupils have reported that they prefer this as they feel less overwhelmed by the volume of work and get live feedback. Leaders feel it is also more manageable for teachers.
The school reports that this system has made it easier for it to monitor true engagement with learning, because if pupils are logging into lessons they are also expected to complete work at the same time. Engagement with learning has improved as a result of this system. The school contacts those pupils who are not engaging and they are brought into school to complete work in the school building, with appropriate support.
Cardiff High School
Leaders and teachers at one secondary school have identified aspects that they encourage teachers to incorporate into their distance learning provision and others that they should avoid or limit. They have found that staff are often over planning sessions, and are now trying to encourage teachers to strip back the content of the lessons to ensure that effective learning is taking place. They encourage teachers to use ‘low stakes’ testing (quizzes, etc), so that they are checking pupils’ engagement regularly. They are concerned that too many learning activities are taking place digitally and leaders are now encouraging teachers to set non-digital tasks like writing in a physical journal or reading a ‘real’ book. Teachers have regular conversations about pedagogy and are beginning to take a ‘less is more’ approach: ‘chunking’ work, consolidating learning, and ensuring that content is not covered at too fast a pace.
Through meetings and professional learning activities, staff have identified that teachers’ communication skills are of vital importance, particularly their proficiency in initiating and developing discussion. Teachers have discussed approaches to questioning that work well in a synchronous session, and of the best uses of the ‘chat facility’ to encourage thoughtful responses from pupils. They have found that teachers sometimes overuse applications. Although these can create interest, they can also interfere with learning, especially when there is a necessity to open different file types on a phone or tablet. Senior leaders and teachers have identified that the effective use of simple facilities, such as the creative use of the ‘hands up’ facility, is more effective. Teachers have also discovered that pupils need to be guided more systematically through their learning than may be the case in the classroom where a teacher can easily support individuals or pupils may pick up cues from their peers. Teachers are now working on making expectations clearer and signposting pupils throughout the learning. They are also looking at developing approaches to peer study groups.
Pupils work to a fixed timetable that mirrors the normal timetable. This includes a mixture of live lessons, webinars (where teachers introduce a session, pupils spend most of the time working individually, and pupils come back at the end of the session to discuss their work) and self-study periods. There is a maximum of three live or webinar sessions per day (so as not to overload in terms of screen time), and a balance of live and webinar sessions across the two-week timetable. All subjects are represented on the timetable. No live lessons are longer than 40 minutes. The strict timetable enables families to plan their time and access to devices. The school insists that teachers follow the timetable for this reason. A few pupils have requested that webinar materials are uploaded prior to the session, and the school has allowed this where it is feasible. The self-study periods allow time for staff to plan.
Monitoring of distance learning provision and pupil engagement
Cardiff High School
In one secondary school, teachers volunteer to share the recordings of their live lessons in professional learning sessions that are open to all staff. These lessons are analysed to ‘unpick’ the learning and to identify effective practice.
Cathays High School
One secondary school has involved all teachers in the monitoring of provision. Within subject area teams, teachers look at the books and online learning of sample groups of pupils in different year groups. This enables them to compare the quality of provision. Their findings are moderated by the senior leadership team.
Leaders have also introduced one to one reviews of online learning. These involve looking at recorded lessons within subject teams. No judgements are allocated to the lesson and the focus is on having a coaching conversation.
Professional learning
Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bryn Tawe
Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bryn Tawe has a research team to investigate effective methods for teaching and assessment. The team is made up of senior leaders and teachers and is responsible for researching different teaching and assessment methods and on ensuring that all teaching and learning decisions are based on the latest research. Currently, the school has four main focus areas for this research: improving pupils’ literacy skills, explanations and modelling, checking understanding and developing independent learning skills.
The research team identify relevant research and engage with all staff to identify training needs. These findings are used to support the school to plan their professional learning approach. Leaders feel this is supporting staff well, for example, the professional learning to develop teachers’ questioning and the targeting of misconceptions has supported teachers to improve their questioning during distance learning activities.
The research team produce and share resources with all staff based on their findings. Teachers use these resources and then provide feedback to the research team on their effectiveness. This enables the research team to use feedback to improve resources and develop teaching and learning approaches.
Ysgol Gyfun Gŵyr
In its role as one of Welsh Government's professional learning schools and as a lead school for professional learning in the ERW region, Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr uses professional enquiry to develop its planning for the delivery of Curriculum for Wales. This approach aims to develop staff’s understanding of the principles of Curriculum for Wales and strategies for embedding it successfully. In light of this, leaders decided to earmark a fortnightly lesson for all staff as a lesson of enquiry. This is an opportunity to browse articles, collect data, interview learners and formulate strategies to enrich teaching, learning and assessment for learning activities.
Ysgol Glan y Môr School
‘Shining the light’ projects are one school’s approach to inspire and motivate staff to feel comfortable in this new way of working. Each week, one department shares one or two things they have used in the last fortnight and provide a sentence on how they used it, what went well and what barriers they thought they encountered. This department then nominates another department to share their good practice the following week.
Communication with and support for parents
Ysgol Dyffryn Aman
One school has an online parental involvement programme. The programme focuses on working with parents to identify strengths and gaps in provision and to plan improvement priorities that will support parents. For example, workshops have been held on topics such as the use of Hwb and Google Classroom, pastoral support and wellbeing, support for pupils with additional learning needs and attitudes to learning.
Ysgol Glan y Môr School
A parent support officer has been appointed in one secondary school. The officer deals with issues such as dropping off devices, dealing with ICT barriers, addressing any problems and helping with parental enquiries. The school has also set up a parent support website to help parents learn more about blended learning and the way in which Google Classroom works.
Ferndale Community School
One secondary school in an area particularly hard hit by cases of COVID-19 has been supported by the local authority to appoint a Family Engagement Officer. The officer has been deployed to work with families to break down anxieties, undertake home visits and manage phased returns to school. In addition, the officer has responsibility for overseeing the remote learning of those pupils who had been identified as being digitally excluded (in the summer), and monitoring their access to hardware and engagement with learning.
Newly qualified teachers and initial teacher education students
Cardiff High School
In order to support initial teacher education students, one secondary school runs sessions where students partake in a group analysis of a mentor’s recorded lesson, and offers opportunities for students to plan and record whole lessons for their mentors to watch (rather than for pupils).
Setting clear expectations
Bassaleg School, Newport
Leaders provided detailed guidance for staff, with clear expectations and support for blended learning.
This gave staff an overview of the planning and learning process and asked them to focus on purpose, structure, scaffolds and reflection. Staff were asked to follow this learning cycle when planning their blended learning approaches. They agreed that all synchronous distance learning will be recorded, including any material that is presented on screen and any conversations, comments made during the lesson.
The school provided a clear behaviour policy to follow in order to support staff to manage synchronous distance learning, and these expectations were shared with pupils and parents.
Adopting a flexible approach
Caldicot School, Monmouthshire
The school has adapted its approaches to teaching and learning and has used its learning cycle to focus more clearly on successful blended learning approaches and to continue to develop teaching in the current climate. As teachers are required to spend more time at the front of the class during face-to-face teaching, the school has had a clear focus on modelling, demonstrating and reviewing learning. Teachers have been grouped together to plan and develop resources for face-to-face and distance teaching in order to reduce workload and promote equity of experience for pupils.
Leaders produced a helpful guide for staff, which outlines clear expectations for teaching in school and when groups are required to isolate or if there are any future lockdowns. The headteacher has provided opportunities for staff to pilot these approaches and through running practice responses to scenarios. As a result, the headteacher feels that nearly all staff are well prepared for any future adaptions that may be required.
In order to continue their focus on improving teaching, leaders have developed a website to share effective practice. Teaching and learning leads review and quality assure this work and, generally, staff are responding positively to this approach. The school has paused lesson observations and has implemented more frequent monitoring of pupil work.
Developing existing digital expertise
Ysgol Gyfun Bro Edern, Cardiff
Teachers at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Edern train to ensure that they are aware of the latest digital developments to support pupils in using ICT. At every opportunity, digital devices are used across lessons to develop pupils’ knowledge.
The confidence and digital competence of staff are key to ensuring that the use of digital resources have a positive effect on teaching and learning. All staff are well informed about the latest digital developments, and regular training has been provided to equip the school’s teachers.
Over the lockdown period, the school was at the forefront of establishing sound procedures for distance learning. It made full use of the Google resources available through Hwb. As a result, the school has been the subject of a case study with Google in California, and presentations have been shared in Google. The Welsh Government has shared online activities on the school's effective use of these digital resources.
Focusing on practical expectations
Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Gwent Is Coed, Newport
Since the lockdown period, the school has further refined systems to be more effective. It has fully adopted methods of blended learning, with the face-to-face live learning taking place in school with tasks in the books and all homework completed digitally. Since September, there have been more live streaming events to enhance teaching further.
The school feels that it has received a wealth of documents on the research behind distance/blended learning. However, it feels that this needed to be summarised more clearly and practically for staff. In addition, the structures and strategies of blended learning were not personal or practical. The school has created a six page summary for staff on practical expectations followed by the pedagogy. It has also undertaken recent training, and staff continue to pilot the practicalities and evaluate the provision. The clear message in the school is that high standards of pedagogy remain.
Monitoring of teaching and learning successes has been refined since September. As part of performance management, all teaching staff have one common target of 'blended learning, digital learning, online learning'. The person responsible for the performance management of the particular teacher joins the teacher's learning classes (on Google classroom) and monitors the provision offered, the methods of delivery, the engagement and feedback given. This leads to a professional dialogue with the teacher on the strengths of the pedagogy and areas for improvement, as well as sharing any good practice that arises. In order to track learners' engagement quickly, all pupils are expected to complete a farewell ticket on Google forms answering simple questions on engagement and knowledge to provide immediate and quick feedback so that the tasks or methods can be adapted and changed quickly. The assistant headteacher then collates and shares good practice at the end of each week. Best practice in assessment is shared through 'adobe spark', which is a combination of pictures and explanations, rather than just narrative.
Evolving and evaluating
Cantonian High School, Cardiff
The school has taken a number of steps to develop a logical approach to the delivery of blended learning that has been informed by evaluation of their approaches through the first lockdown period and research undertaken by senior leaders and staff.
The school evaluated the impact of different approaches to distance learning based on the engagement of pupils on a rolling basis. They found that one of the most successful approaches was the use of ‘two week challenges’ which involved parents and families. They found that initially, pupils were overwhelmed by work and this de-motivated them. The school made decisions quickly to change approaches if they were not working. Using Teams, the school was able to monitor levels of pupil engagement, look at the type of task they responded to best and analyse this information by year group/groups of learners.
To support distance and blended learning, the school has developed booklets for each subject. These condense work and key features/concepts from each subject. Currently, in face to face lessons, teachers use these booklets and model how they can be used with resources on Teams. This approach is intended to help pupils be confident about how they can continue to access learning materials if they are out of school for a period of time and how the teacher will interact with them digitally.
The school regularly trials and samples different approaches to blended learning that might provide staff and pupils with valuable learning strategies should there be a need to isolate. They test these out in the current situation when pupils are in school so that they can be put into practice quickly should there be periods when pupils are not in school. For example, a recent trial tried to pre-empt a scenario of what learning might look like if a teacher has to self-isolate but pupils are in school.
Blended learning is now the school’s approach to teaching and learning. They are incorporating a blended approach into their teaching and learning – e.g. getting pupils to do research online prior to lessons and trying to be creative as to how pupils can present work in different ways. Independent work is being set regularly on Google Classroom.
Virtual open days
One secondary school held a programme of virtual open days for its Year 11 pupils. Each day featured a different subject available to pupils in the sixth form. Following this, the school ran a timetable of research and reading tasks followed by live seminars with the sixth form teachers based around the option choices. This was very well received, with 85% of Year 11 pupils participating.