Agenda item

To report on the recovery plan for education to catch up on missed schooling and targeted action for disadvantaged communities.

Eveleen Riordan, Assistant Director for Schools and Learning, reported on plans to enable children and young people to catch up with schooling that had been missed during the lockdown.  The experience of children and young people had been variable and there had been a significant negative impact on those from black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities.  In particular, some children and young people had struggled to use on-line learning resources due to lack of access to IT.  There had been a Department for Education (DfE) scheme to provide laptops to those who needed them but this had been slow to get off the ground.  In addition, most schools were not set up to deliver learning virtually, although some had excelled.  There was particular concern regarding those young people who were approaching public exams. 

It was not possible as yet to determine what the full impact of the lockdown had been on learning.  Teachers would be spending the autumn term assessing what progress children had made, what catch up work was required and how best to fill any gaps. 

The Council and Haringey Education Partnership (HEP) had participated in the Lost Learning project alongside Enfield, Camden, Islington, Hackney and Barnet to explore in detail the impact of the lockdown on learning.  A broadly similar picture had emerged across all of the boroughs.  National research had indicated that children had, on average, lost three months of schooling but this was more for BAME children as well as boys. 

The Council and Haringey Education Partnership (HEP) were providing support for schools in providing continuing and blended learning, as well as future proofing against any future lockdowns.  Examples of good practice were being shared.  The Council had also been collecting and distributing laptops from the DfE for children who had social workers.  HEP were working with schools to develop remote learning further in schools.  Ofsted would be focusing on this with non-graded ‘visits’ in the autumn and would resume normal inspections from January 2021.

The Council’s BAME achievement group had developed tools and support for schools to tackle the gaps in attainment and outcomes. The Council and HEP would be jointly hosting another conference, checking on delivering against the eight commitments in their pledge, aiming to complete a BAME review in every HEP supported school this year and asking schools to identify and address the impact on BAME communities.

Lockdown had impacted on the learning of all children and young people across all settings.  There were wide variations in how families and schools had been able to respond to the lockdown and support children with online and other learning resources.  There had also been variations between localities and within individual schools.  Teachers would be using the coming term to develop a greater understanding of the impact and this would help to shape the recovery curriculum. There would be an impact on national testing in 2021 but schools would work with young people to minimise this.  

In answer to a question regarding the Catch Up Premium funding for schools and how this was being used, Ms Riordan agreed to provide an update to the Panel outside of the meeting. 

Panel Members commented that schools and children were finding the current circumstances very challenging, particularly the regular need for learning to take place outside of school.  Ms Riordan stated that schools were looking to equip children and young people to learn effectively from home when required.  Blended learning was being widely used and the good practice of some schools, such as Mulberry, was being widely shared.  It was important that there was consistency in the provision of high quality remote learning and action was being taken to ensure that all schools were providing this.  The provision of laptops by the DfE had been a good idea, but had taken time to roll out.  Measures were in place to provide assistance if laptops malfunctioned, with schools providing help in the first instance.  The gaps in learning varied considerably with some being very small and other instances where there had been virtually no learning at all undertaken during lockdown.  Schools would consider what additional support might be needed and this could possibly include booster classes if necessary.

In reference to safeguarding referrals, Ms Graham reported that these had dropped initially.  This was because children had been less visible as they were not at school.  Additional measures had been taken to address this.  These included action to ensure that children remained the responsibility of the local area and were not transferred to a new area when they were deplaned from a child protection plan.  She was happy to report further to the Panel on how safeguarding had been maintained.   Referrals were still coming through and were expected to increase sharply.  Additional capacity had been put in where required and action taken to ensure that there were stable workloads.  Although the Council had received some additional funding, this was not sufficient and had not been ring fenced.  A note was being kept on the additional spending that had been required for use in discussions with the government.

AGREED:

1.    That that the findings of the Lost Learning project be shared with the Panel;

2.    That further information be provided to the Panel on how the Catch Up premium funding for schools is being used; and

3.    That a report be made to a future meeting of the Panel on how safeguarding of vulnerable children has been maintained during the pandemic and lockdown.