Blended learning – a reflection on the past six weeks

This is another guest post from Janice Allen, describing the blended learning approach her school has taken – and how it’s worked so far.

In August I wrote my first blog about the phased induction we had introduced which we call our 60:40 offer. You can read about it here. It was important that I was clear that this was not a ‘rota’ but a full curriculum – albeit with two days being delivered live at home. This blog explains how the phased induction became an offer for the past six weeks and how it could perhaps work for others over the winter.

What we wanted to achieve

Our priority was to ensure we could deliver a full curriculum and ensure our children had a compelling learning experience; we also anticipated that it would help in terms of self-regulation and meta-cognition. This was a risk to me professionally but more importantly to the school and the community I serve. I was in no doubt about the worst case scenario. During March – June we were averaging an online attendance of 20-25% so it may have seemed wild or maverick to look for the ‘should nots’ in the guidance and go ahead with our plan; I am not a maverick but I will take a calculated risk. Having spoken to schools who were achieving a high online attendance, we knew it wasn’t insurmountable – we just needed to be really careful with our planning.

Initial stages

We struggled the first day of online learning as we had not anticipated how difficult it would be for Year 7 to log on the day they were accessing it at home and there were a number of heart in mouth moments that first week when attendance online was around 88%. In retrospect we should have had an army of support staff manning the phones that first day but we rectified it for day two. We sent our first bubble of 90 home in the first full week, a second bubble the week after and a third bubble in week four. However, we have had 6 positive cases which, when you consider that we are and have always been in a ‘hotspot’ in central Rochdale, and in Greater Manchester, and have high levels of deprivation, a large BAME population and multi-generational households, is not as high as some of our neighbours. Crucially, we have only had to ask 270 pupils (3 x bubbles of 90) to self-isolate as opposed to the 540 (6 x bubbles of 90) it could have been. This is because when we have had a positive case, it has worked out that the positive cases had been online prior to their test. A bit of luck? maybe; fortunate? definitely; but the planning that we had put in place and the systems for keeping the space in a school of 1350 pupils where we were asking pupils to move around the building and fulfil their curriculum was detailed. It had been built around ensuring our children would have access to their full curriculum and ensure the habits of remote learning were in place for any further lockdown.

How it developed

After two weeks, the temperature check we took saw that pupils and parents were getting used to the online learning and the quality of what we were delivering was getting stronger. The live learning where each teacher delivered the curriculum to the pupils, all pupils were expected to attend and phone calls and home visits were made before 10am if they were not online, and the science of learning was used to deliver remotely (chunking, recall, use of the chat function, cold calling) was having a positive impact. We also had two bubbles of Year 7 at home and cases were rising in our area and across Greater Manchester. We extended for another two weeks.

A really tough decision

In Week 4, on the Thursday, I had told parents we were moving to an 80:20 model with all pupils in for five days the week before half term. I do this via social media which we developed over lockdown. This was through live Instagram and Facebook chats (not something I particularly enjoy but it reaches a wide audience) and that model has continued since our return. On the Friday of Week 4 I was notified of our third positive case whereby we had to send a bubble home. It seemed incongruous with cases rising and with me sending 90 children home on the Friday to say to parents, “Hey, I know I’ve told you we are increasing number of days in school, but I’m sending 90 children home.” I spoke to SLT and then went and spoke to my catering staff and cleaners to see what they would think if I changed my mind and kept the 60:40 model – what would they think of me as a leader? Would they still have trust? The answer was unequivocally that as a parent it made more sense and so, we decided to extend for another week and after last week (Week 5) where our cases in the borough doubled to become the second highest again in Greater Manchester, we decided to continue until October half term. It is not an easy decision to make and there have been a couple of times where it has really hurt physically to make those decisions, but, in the absence for Headteachers of direction and, as we know, a pushing of the decision making onto individual heads and schools, we have all had that gnawing pit of anxiety. Once the decision is made however and communicated I have found that I feel far more settled and more capable to lead compelling learning, which is, after all, my job in school.

Successes

There is no comparison to having children in the class in front of you, and I must admit that our 45 minute dinner time for the full school seems to go on forever (not as long as a 3 hour dinner obviously) but we wanted to make sure our full curriculum was delivered and this has helped us to do this – and has kept more pupils in school up to this point. No bubble, so far, has had to self-isolate twice; no KS4 children have had to self-isolate because of a positive case in their class. I know that could change even by tomorrow. But what we have done is demonstrated that a blended learning offer in these difficult times can work – if it is carefully planned for. We have seen:

• Attendance online around 95%. In school it is lower as more children self-isolate because of their families.
• Additional needs pupils reporting that they feel happier as, “Everyone is in the same position.”
• Explanations from teachers more precise.
• The habits of learning becoming more ingrained in pupils. Staff report that when a pupil answers a question it is often fuller and more detailed because the influence of peers is not as apparent as if they were in a classroom.
• No apparent loss in children gaining the key concepts – again, this is because we had planned what could be delivered this way and because our curriculum and assessment procedures were already strong.
• Pupils who are self-isolating because of family positive cases still accessing the live learning.
• Teachers rising to the challenge – but that is because we have taken the approach of us learning together.

There are still areas we need to improve – we want to work on the chat function because we want to stop our children writing as they speak in the chat function and to use Standard English; some subjects give themselves more easily to the live learning; we need to improve the offer for children who are having to self-isolate because of a family member as they don’t always join into the class in school although they have a lesson set for every period which is sent on the day, but I am really proud of the staff and the children for the way we are working.

To quality assure our practice, we are using the What Makes Great Teaching dimensions and elements and working with Prof Rob Coe and the team at Evidence Based Education. We have been working with the team at EBE to help shape the What Makes Great Teaching and we are very fortunate for this to continue. Subject teams are identifying what works particularly in their area. Safeguarding is still at the forefront – for example, on one live lesson, a pupil with additional needs became upset – our Safeguarding team went to the house and brought them into school. We have very clear guidelines for how teachers and pupils should participate in the live learning. I have had no complaints from parents or local councilors about our practice – instead, a lot of positive parental praise which always has a motivational element to keep going.

We have taken the successes and are in the process of building an i-college where live learning can be used for children who may struggle with school, or who are ill and where staff are able to undertake flexible working. We’ve taken our learning and have an idea for how it can be developed for some pupils for the future with our staff and the strong relationships we have.

The gnawing dread that we aren’t doing the right thing

I still have an anxiety and a fear that at some point someone will come in and tell me I shouldn’t have done it and walk me out, and maybe this blog is partly my insurance policy, but we have been asked by our local PHE team to share our practice because of the low number of infections and low number of pupils sent home and I believe this is a far better model than having pupils in for two weeks then home for two weeks: it keeps the link with school and keeps the learning aligned with the curriculum in school; it takes into account how learning can happen and as educationalists that has to be our priority. We are offering all subjects and all practical subjects. Pupils move from class to class with enhanced cleaning measures in place. Our children are not missing out: we are running all music peri lessons, additional needs therapeutic interventions, alternative provision in school, reading interventions, revision classes after school (sometimes online) – and it feels good. In an area which has always been in the top ten for positive cases since June we are cautiously optimistic.

I’ve realised its taken a lot of guts to do this and it’s taken its toll a little, but our staff are supportive and so are my governing body. It required me to think a little bit differently and have the bravery to go ahead – albeit with a feeling of dread in those first couple of weeks. It can work – maybe not for everyone – but I pose that it may be a way to get us through the winter, especially in the North West, and perhaps a little more diverse thinking and careful planning about how we address the problems we face may be needed.

You can read Janice’s first post, on setting up blended learning arrangements at the school, here.

You can read my suggestions for designing online learning here, and on motivating students to turn up for it, here.