VIEWS & OPINION


How to identify and support the post lockdown midrange


strugglers Comment by FLEUR SEXTON, Managing Director, PET-Xi Training


In this piece, I’d like to offer my top tips on identifying and supporting those students that are struggling but are also hard to spot. School is back in session and teachers are busy trying to identify the


learning gaps, provide ‘catch up’, and support their students’ mental health. It’s easy to spot gaps in learning for students who had intermittent access to digital tools, those with dysfunctional home lives and the ones who struggled and received support before lockdown. Which leaves the ‘mid-range’ students who previously just got on


with their work with little or no teacher intervention. What’s been happening in their lives over lockdown? These are the students who had the necessary tools for online learning and a place to study, maybe one or both parents continued working, but what they missed was the school structure, the support of the classroom – teachers and peers to help with motivation, suggest new approaches to solving problems, discuss ideas, and the creativity and inspiration of being in a collaborative space. Before lockdown, this had always helped maintain their learning, but they haven’t had that environmental enrichment for the past 18 months. These students may have considerable gaps and accompanying


anxiety - this hasn’t happened to them before and their confidence has taken a hit alongside their academics. Unlike those who regularly received support before, these students may not know how to access it or are reticent about asking for help. So how do we ensure these students also get what they need?


• First the gaps need to be identified – although testing may be the quickest way, the results from AFL, assessment for learning techniques, will provide much more information about misunderstandings and misperceptions, and also mean that more learning time isn’t lost to testing. • Rebuild that classroom collaboration with discussion, peer feedback and reflection. Group motivation creates a real buzz, excitement and enjoyment. Make sure everyone knows it’s ok to need help. • Coach students to recognise and relate to the learning process with the Learning Challenge or Learning Pit - learning should take them out of their comfort zone and that in turn can create anxiety. Encourage them to talk through the process, identify the frustration and accept mistakes are part of learning. • Provide unconditional positive regard to build trust, confidence and motivation. Quick check-ins with polls and confidence tests will help deliver academic results and support mental health and wellbeing. • Returning to school will take some readjustment, and students and teachers testing positive will mean some disruption to the routine will continue. Try to keep as much stability as possible. • Provide space and times during the school day when mentor schemes, tutor groups and other clubs and peer groups can meet. Music, drama and sports provide chances for communication, exploration and confidence building.


And above all - once you have these students in view, keep them there.


What will it take to provide children a more creative learning experience, without the pressure of test day?


Comment by Mark Horneff, Managing Director at independent gaming studio, Kuato Studios


In 2019, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, stated: “In reality, SATs do not tell teachers or parents anything they didn’t already know about their child or school, but have the negative unintended consequences of distracting from teaching and learning.” Yet, standardised testing in British schools continues. More recently in April, How to Train your Dragon author Cressida


Cowell wrote an open letter criticising the government’s focus on testing grammar, spelling and punctuation, rather than fostering a love of reading and writing. This followed top US universities including Harvard removing test-based entry requirements, driven by bias favouring privileged students and the detrimental mental health effects of high-stakes exams. Tackling standardised higher education testing is good, but inequalities,


anxiety and frustration are sewn into children’s lives from the moment school begins, with British children aged four required to take the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) within their first school year. Standardised testing has been pushed by the government to reach numeracy and literacy goals and, whilst there’s been some success, it’s meant narrowing the curriculum. When teachers ‘teach the test’ they


October 2021


prevent pupils from accessing a more holistic and rounded education that could spark fresh interests. Primary school tests instil success and ‘failure’ ideals at a tender age


when children should simply want to experience and try everything they can without the underlying worry they might ‘fail’. This concept of failure and anxiety can affect children with special educational needs (SEN), such as dyslexia. Growing up with dyslexia myself, creative exploration of comics allowed me to enjoy reading. This isn’t just true of SEN children, some of those most affected by attainment metrics will be younger, so standardised testing can make children believe they cannot achieve what they desire based on their birth month. Both primary and secondary school pupils learn more effectively in


active and creative lessons because they’re memorable. Teachers are best placed to witness where young children’s progression is and what they must learn next on the basis of working closely with them. An assessment based on a teacher’s observations of a child over a prolonged period would be a more accurate representation of their development and learning as a whole, rather than what they’re capable of on a particular day. However, this may put too much pressure on teachers to notice and


record developments in a significant number of children. Education technology, which many schools have needed to use throughout the pandemic, can support here as its untapped potential remains to be fulfilled. Rather than simply using education technology as a temporary solution to be forgotten, governments can encourage the use of edtech to monitor and nurture progress on an ongoing basis. This presents a more holistic view of development and gives educators


an insight without the testing stress for children. Technology provides the ability to embed learning within processes children are already engaging in, such as through games on a smartphone. If children’s screen time is rising anyway, then it seems sensible to harness their time spent on devices by monitoring their progress in this way, creating an opportunity to “fail successfully” – to learn from their mistakes without the demoralising barriers of test-based outcomes.


www.education-today.co.uk 23


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