During the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers and families across the country have provided extraordinary support to help children learn at home. However, for many children, the disruption caused by school closures will have had a negative impact on learning and wellbeing. With this in mind, as a school, we will be providing a recovery programme which will run from the return on March 8th 2021.

This document is designed to summarise the strategies that MFPS is putting in place as part of our response to the pandemic.

The EEF state that it is important to recognise that every school will have been affected by Covid-19 differently and school leaders and teachers are best placed to understand the needs of their school communities. The right way to support pupils will differ between schools and must be informed by the professional judgement of teachers and school leaders.

They also make note that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are likely to have been affected particularly by school closures and may need more support to return to school and settle back into school life. This will be addressed in more detail in our PP spending plan.

In designing our recovery programme we have used the EEF COVID-19 support guide to ensure our practise is informed by extensive research.

When considering our Recovery Curriculum we used Evidence For Learning's reference to building on the 5 Levers, as a systematic, relationships-based approach to reigniting the flame of learning in each child. Many children will return to school disengaged. Our quest, our mission as educators, should be to support children through a process of re-engagement, which leads them back to their rightful status as a fully engaged, authentic learners. Our curriculum through the initial stages will prioritise identifying gaps and re-establishing good progress in the essentials (phonics, reading, increasing vocabulary, writing and mathematics) whilst remaining broad and ambitious for all. They have a strong use of real-life experiences to motivate and engage pupils in lessons.

Transition Support...

High expectation, high quality and high engagement have been the key strands to our remote learning and we promote this throughout our remote education offer. We have taught the same broad & balanced curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. This consistency of approach through mirroring the school timetable will ease transition, as the planning and sequencing of lessons has continued to follow the same routines as in school.

During the first spring half term, class teachers have continued to use formative assessment and tracking documents to monitor pupil progress. This rigorous approach to assessments will support class teachers to identify areas where pupils are likely to require additional support and provide opportunities for teachers to share information about pupils’ strengths. This ensures that curriculum planning, on return, is informed by an assessment of pupils’ starting points and gaps in their knowledge and an understanding of what is the most critical content for progression.

To motivate and engage our children upon return to school, teasers and snippets of engaging hooks and lesson content will be shared with them at home to re-establish early relationship building.

Targeted pupils were offered a place for 3 or 2 days in the final week to get used to returning to school and the routine.

On Friday 26th February, staff have posted postcards by hand to all homes. These contained details about the return to school on 8th March and pictures of key staff working with pupils. They may have even seen you to say hello and provide any answers to questions you may have had. Contact has been made with all pupils/parents weekly via telephone or online. We ensured all pupils had the opportunity to speak to their teacher(s) or leaders in school.

We led coffee and chat sessions for parents alongside our weekly chat and check-ins with pupils online in the week commencing 1st March 2021. These were set up per year group so parents and pupils had the opportunity to share any worries/concerns and to ask any questions they may have. Parent's weekly coffee mornings were run throughout the lockdown. Pupil check-ins occurred weekly from Spring 2.

We also offered a time to visit the playground, stay socially distanced and see school leaders on the final Friday afternoon (5th March) before the full return to school. Regular updates were sent via text/email/arbor/Seesaw and Twitter. Key documents were updated on our website and re-sent to all parents.

Our approach to Teaching & Learning

We will continue to use accelerated learning as our teaching and learning approach for the delivery of our curriculum. Supported by EEF metacognition research, this has ensured the pace of learning is appropriate and has enabled pupils to secure rapid and sustained progress which has improved outcomes and standards within each lesson. Adopting the accelerated learning approach provides opportunities to build on prior learning and develop skills and knowledge through a consistent cycle of connection, activation, activity, demonstration and consolidation. High levels of engagement are achieved through purposeful and stimulating activities which absorb pupils in learning and also through providing opportunities for pupils to work collaboratively.

Core knowledge and skills are at the heart of the learning process. A gather, skills, apply approach to planning and delivery of lessons is taken across school to ensure children develop a deep understanding and are able to apply these in a range of situations.

What about Seesaw/Teams?

If your child is at home shielding or isolating but well enough to complete work, they will have their lessons shared via the same methods used during lockdown/bubble closures. This will be live learning via Teams and they will be expected to post work to Seesaw. They will not receive instant feedback at this time due to staff being in school with the rest of the class. Teachers will mark work at the end of the school day so they receive feedback and do not fall behind.

We will continue to use Seesaw as a method of communicating with home as well as to direct home learning opportunities. Following ongoing assessments, tasks will be assigned to individuals and groups to address gap needs. This will be introduced during targeted support and booster sessions to be continued at home and check at the next session.

Our approach to the curriculum is through themed-based learning underpinned by the accelerated learning cycle. The key concepts, principles and themes from the National Curriculum have been developed into a range of progressive knowledge & skills through which the children are helped to grow and develop to succeed in 21st century Britain. This knowledge and skills-based curriculum allows a creative way of teaching and learning, enabling us to move away from discrete lessons into a more meaningful, engaging, topic-based approach for the curriculum.

Following the recent pandemic of COVID-19 in the world and school-wide closures, Milefield Primary School have amended the offer for pupils starting in March 2021. We will still focus on the key skills as mentioned above but these will now have a strong link to Literacy and Mathematics skills in all areas of the curriculum. This is to ensure pupils catch up and do not lose any of the key skills in order to progress throughout their primary school career. We aim for pupils at Milefield Primary School to develop their Maths and Literacy skills whilst being engrossed in a thematic curriculum which ties all learning together and works towards an end goal/outcome.

Emphasis will be placed on children's wellbeing in all areas of the curriculum and will be the theme of our weekly assemblies (conducted online). Children's emotional wellbeing and social skills will be developed throughout our curriculum in weekly PSHCE sessions. We will also ensure PE is taught weekly to develop their understanding of healthy bodies & healthy minds. Children will be given the opportunity to share any worries or concerns regularly and discuss these in small groups or as a class. We will emphasise the importance of being open and honest and sharing issues to support one another to feel comfortable and calm in school again. All necessary safety measures will be catered for and pupils will have signage around school as well as being reminded of the need to maintain hygeine standards.

What about pupils with SEND?

As we move into re-integration of all pupils in March 2021, the provision for pupils with SEND will not be neglected. As mentioned previously, the curriculum will be a catch up system where pupils are included in interventions regularly in order to address any gaps in learning from the COVID-19 lockdown. Pupils with SEND will be a part of this and classteachers will work closely with our Director of SEND, Mrs J Walker, who will be resident at Milefield Primary 1.5 days per week (remotely where needed). This will allow classteachers the opportunity to keep using the graduated approach with their pupils with SEND and ensure support plans and EHCPs are updated regularly. Meetings with parents may have to be conducted online but this will be clarified when necessary. All current EHCPs and support plans have been shared with new classteachers and will be ready to share with parents in the next meetings.

Please remember that there is an information gathering process and evidence needs to be collected before any referrals can take place.

We are in discussions with the Educational Psychologist service, Social Communication and Interaction, Little Acorns (Wellbeing for KS1) and TADS (Mental Health support for KS2) about how they can be successfully re-integrated back into supporting our pupils. This may take a while to re-commence with observations and support work back in school.

We will also be utilising our well-trained PSHCE lead and Pupil welfare lead to run in-house sessions about wellbeing and mental health dealing with everything from bereavement to anxiety. We will focus on our pupils' happiness and wellbeing first and foremost before considering their academic progress. If you need to share any concerns from lockdown, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Curriculum

The curriculum has been reviewed in light of autumn assessment. We amend planning and teaching in terms of gaps in knowledge and key areas of weakness so pupils are well prepared.

The curriculum we offer is designed to meet the needs of all our pupils. It is rich, varied, imaginative and ambitious and meets the needs of individual learners but can easily be adapted for pupils with additional needs. Through regular assessment, tasks are matched to the ability of each child through differentiated activities, adult support, providing a level of challenge that is stimulating for pupils and questioning skills.

To ensure correct coverage over time, cohort maps are filled in to ensure breadth of study across school. All pupils have their understanding assessed regularly which assists teachers to plan to cater for gaps in knowledge and build on foundations.

What if a bubble is closed?

In the event of a wider lock down or bubble closure, the school will move to a blended approach to home learning including live lessons on Microsoft Teams and Seesaw. Microsoft Teams is completely free and can be linked with any Microsoft account (EG: hotmail/outlook 365). Please click the button to set this up so you are prepared in case of a closure/lockdown. We would hate for any pupils to miss learning opportunities. If you require any support, please let us know as soon as possible.

Parents will receive information to assist with logging onto live lessons and Seesaw via their email addresses using our Arbor system. If we do not have your email address, please email parents@milefieldprimary.org.uk

Research is showing that COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on children's mental health. Our response to this will be through the use of our nurture provision, TADs/Little Acorns, PE and PSHCE lessons.

All teaching staff have accessed Trauma Informed Schools training allowing staff to offer nurturing approaches within all classrooms so that children are supported wherever they are learning. Select staff have completed bereavement and mental health training courses.

Nurture sessions offer a short term, focused intervention strategy, which addresses individual barriers to learning in an inclusive, supportive manner. Central to the philosophy is attachment theory: an area of psychology which explains the need for any person to be able to form secure and happy relationships with others in the formative years of their lives and our ongoing knowledge of neuroscience.

We also support families to help them develop strategies to use with their children at home when they are displaying difficult behaviours. We work alongside professionals from a range of agencies to support our children and families to ensure they are able to reach their full potential and become well-rounded members of society.

Throughout the pandemic, we have provided extensive pastoral support to pupils and families. As school restarts in March 2021, we will continue to provide regular and supportive communications with parents, especially to increase attendance and engagement with learning. As mentioned previously, we will continue to use Seesaw as a method of supporting learning at home, including extended learning tasks.

Formative assessment is ongoing throughout each lesson. It judges progress and enables the teacher to make flexible adaptations to their planned teaching. As Literacy and Maths skills will now be embedded throughout Curriculum teaching, we will see some skills twinned with these subjects to ensure rapid progression.

Insight Online Tracking is used as a summative assessment to assess foundation subjects. The knowledge and skills based curriculum is regularly highlighted to identify any gaps or misconceptions to be addressed or passed onto the following teachers.