Since Covid restrictions started lifting in April, things have started to feel more hopeful at Coppice Valley Primary School. Although we’re still not able to mix together as a whole school, we can now run after-school sports clubs. It is small wins like this that make me feel there is light at the end of the tunnel. We’ve got Sports Day and our Art Exhibition in the calendar for July in the hope that the roadmap out of lockdown will keep on track as planned. Anyone who works in education will tell you that they can’t wait to get back to normal.
However, out of the challenges that Covid-19 has given us has come some innovations that we don’t want to lose. Covid-keepers, as they’re becoming known, are what school leaders are now talking about. Here are our top three pandemic adaptations that we won’t be letting go.
Nature Breaks vs Playtimes
The necessity to separate bubbles meant getting creative with the way we use our outdoor space at school. We’re blessed with a lot of green space but timetabling playtimes so social bubbles did not mix and ensuring staff got a break or cleaned rooms was difficult. Two of our bubbles had to use our community garden space usually reserved for our gardening club and local residents to grow food. It’s a smaller space than the children are used to using and it took some work to teach them how to use the space differently. The daffodils took a hit this year as the temptation to swipe them down with “swords” (sticks) was just too much for a few children. Raucous games of tig just don’t work in allotment beds (well, not without a lot of damage to the produce!). So, with a bit of retraining in how to use the space, the children have learned to use their breaks to unwind in a different way. Over time, we’ve seen the children engage more with the surroundings, using the space to chill out and really explore nature. A craze for building bug hotels and nature spaces for wildlife developed with children working on projects over several weeks in their breaks. I love seeing the children engage with nature and the awe and wonder on their faces when they find a frog in the long grass so even after Covid restrictions end, we’ll be keeping the option of nature breaks for our pupils.
Advances in Technology
Technology, of course, and the way we use it in education now for remote learning is the first covid keeper. Being able to switch to remote teaching via online platforms at the press of a button is a powerful tool to have in our school toolkit. Although (fingers crossed) we won’t be closing schools again, the capacity for setting up remote learning will be useful if a child with a medical condition cannot attend school for a length of time. Better yet, parents’ meetings via Microsoft Teams are a bonus for both parents and teachers. Parents don’t need to wait around the school for hours as appointments over-run and teachers have the flexibility to host meetings from home instead of having to be in school until late into the evening.
Creating Video Content and Live Steaming
Without the option to open up our doors to parents, new starters and their parents during the worst of the pandemic, we had to find new ways to share with our community. Videos became our go-to medium. At first, my staff used video just to share vital information such as how to enter and exit the school site safely. When we couldn’t invite the new Reception intake for taster days or information evenings for their parents, we created a series of videos, each released on a different day on our YouTube channel about key facts for starting school such as uniform and school lunches. With these successes behind us, we got more adventurous and started streaming live FaceBook story times each week and created special videos to celebrate Christmas and reopening our school in March this year.
The last year has made us more courageous and adventurous when it comes to providing for our school community. We’ve done more than we ever thought we could and though we’ll be delighted when the restrictions are over, we’ll keep the best of our innovations.
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