S1, EP 20: Return to School

How do we support students returning to school from remote learning?

Remote learning has a big impact on not only the learning of our students but also on their wellbeing. 

In episode 20, the Teacher Takeaway team discuss was to support students as they return to the classroom from remote learning, including:

• wellbeing (1:23)
• classroom life (12:25)
• assessment and reporting (30:00)

Wellbeing

Wellbeing of our students, staff, parents and community is hugely important, and none more so than in this uncertain time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reality is that if wellbeing is not there, then we cannot focus on learning. 

What we need to be thinking about and asking ourselves as teachers and leaders is:

What will we be doing first to support our students as they return into the classroom?

The key thing about wellbeing is not overpreparing. Meaning not trying to fit everything in and madly assessing where students are at when they return. When students return to the classroom, there will be some level of anxiousness for many students as well as for teachers and leaders. 

A good place to begin is to sit down with students and have a good, honest and open conversation and checking in with the class. It is important that during this transition period, teachers are flexible with their planning and the timing of undertaking certain tasks, such as major assessments. 

It is also important that we check in with our parents and carers too and communicating with them about the different things that will be happening. 

There will be a level of excitement from staff, but we still need to remember that our colleagues will need to be supported during this transition time as well. 

​Providing students with time to talk about how they are feeling and any questions they have is crucial as we begin to transition back into the classroom environment. As teachers, we can utilise this discussion with students to examine what we can proactively do to ease some of those worries. We don't need to have all the answers, but we need to provide a safe space to openly talk about what is going on. 

A key message: Focus on what we can control!

What will we do to support the staff in our school?
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We need to be mindful about our staff and our colleagues. It is important that leaders wrap their staff in support and not but pressure on them to catch students up and not overburdening them with assessment expectations. 

Classroom Life​

Ensuring that classroom routines and expectations are revisited and are in place will be so important in helping the students transition back in to the classroom learning environment. 

Behaviour management and classroom management will be equally as important as we support this time of transition. 

As teachers, it is important that we don't burden ourselves and the students with the expectation that things will slot back in where we left off. We need to allow ourselves the space to reset and focus on what is really important. 

A​ssessment and Reporting

When students return from lockdown don't put too much pressure on yourself to determine where the students are at by giving them lots of assessment tasks. 

Allow the students time to settle back and make observations and judgements about when you think they might be ready to step it up a little more. 

The National Education Standards Authority (NESA) which governs the curriculum, assessment and reporting in NSW has provided teachers with the flexibility in Semester 2 around reporting expectations. Check with your school executive around what reports will look like for your school and the timeline in place for the reporting period. 

Use your observations prior to lockdown and the couple of weeks post lockdown to report on the students'

• area of strengths
• area for improvement

It is not advised to report on learning and engagement during the remote learning period, as not all students had equal access to learning as well as equal support with set learning. Some students will have actively engaged during remote learning and others will not have engaged at all. 

Teachers need to be mindful about how we frame our reports because it has the potential to be a sensitive issue. Some parents may feel it is a reflection on them during the remote learning period, and we therefore, need to think carefully about the language we use and how we frame the report.