Jules

This is the second of two articles about one nursery's experience of an Ofsted inspection with the new framework. You can read part one here, which explains the preparations being made by the team in their daily practice and discussions, leading up to the moment the phone call came at 12.20 on a Wednesday lunchtime early in the Spring Term. This is where we rejoin Rebecca and her team! Pre inspection afternoon The management team took time to complete a full ‘walk through’ the nursery – front to back, inside and outside. We had a close eye on presentation and took the opportunity to clear away/tidy extraneous items. First impressions count and we knew that we would be quizzed on everything we had ‘out’ in the nursery, so we made sure everything was in the right place and ready to go. We checked that all our statutory documents were securely displayed (Ofsted cert, insurance docs). We didn’t want to risk a breach of requirements due to poor Sellotape! All staff were able to review their key children’s records making sure they had important details to hand. This was mostly an exercise in reassurance, giving staff the opportunity to have ‘on paper’ what they generally keep in their head in case their mind went blank when they were nervous. As manager, I downloaded a few of the tracking screens I use on a daily basis so that I would have assessment data at my fingertips if I needed it, guarding myself against a ‘Wi-Fi’ issue on the day. Of particular importance were the summative screens for this term as I use these in my cohort tracking and so have data and explanations going back 5 terms. Staff also agreed with each other what the groupings for the inspection day would be and what activities/resources they wanted (so that there was a broad range of things for the inspector to see that reflected our ‘usual’ provision and also so that staff knew they would have the equipment they needed). We made sure that our Tapestry details were up to date and reflected our knowledge of children’s age/stage at that particular time (rather than within a longer assessment period, as this would be covered in our cohort tracking). Before staff went home (and people didn’t stay after their expected finish time) we made sure everyone was clear about what they were doing, unqualified staff felt confident and were ‘buddied up’ and all staff were working in areas where they felt happy and relaxed. We also asked that our ‘work experience’ student didn’t come in – not because she wasn’t valued but because she was being closely supported by senior staff and they felt they had a lot to think about and would not be able to give her the focus they would like to on the day. Statutory policies were collected together and staff quickly read them through to be sure they felt confident talking about them. I made a quick Q+A sheet for all staff, reminding them of key policy headlines. Staff took the ‘crib sheet’ home if they wanted to. The management team reread the setting’s development plan and the management action plan – we knew we would be talking about this at length so we wanted to be sure we felt confident. Finally, we used Tapestry to let parents know about the inspection (this is a requirement) and we took the opportunity to ask them to email in anything they wanted to tell the inspector about our setting. I sent parents the section of the inspection handbook that detailed the judgement on partnerships with parents. It was vital that parents knew this was important and that they knew what the questions from the inspector would be. This is the Tapestry message I posted: Hello Everyone! We have just had a phone call informing us of an Ofsted inspection tomorrow, we are obliged to tell you that it is taking place. In addition to informing you, we are asked to give you the opportunity to give feedback to the inspector about the nursery. If you have points you would like to share with the inspector they will be used to "contribute to judgements about how well the provision works in partnership with parents to support children’s learning and development, and the promotion of their well-being". This means you might want to comment on how you settled your child when they started, how you talk to staff about your child, how you know how your child is getting on at nursery (e.g at drop offs, pick up, through Tapestry etc). If you would like to speak to the inspector she will be here from 8am, or you can leave a note for her marked for her attention. Alternatively you can put a comment on Tapestry or drop us an email. The consequence of this was that we received 10-15 long emails from parents which were to be given to the inspector. On the day, these proved to be massively important for two reasons: firstly, it boosted our confidence to know that our parents fully support us and appreciate everything we do for the children; and secondly, they showed the inspector from the start that this was an area of our provision that was extremely strong. The day of… Having not had a huge amount of sleep, the team gathered early. The inspector had said she would be with us at around 8am. By 8.30 she had arrived and ‘we were very much off!’ We started with a brief discussion of how the day would map out and we were told that if there were things we wanted the inspector to see then she should be told and she would move to see them. We identified a few things that we felt we wanted her to observe, trying to select staff at different stages of their training, a range of age groups and a range of activities. The arrangements we had planned the previous day were helpful as staff knew what they were doing and were mentally prepared. Once this program had been explained I went to each room and let staff know approximately when the inspector would be with them – it was important that they didn’t feel they had to be ‘on parade’ all day. I also told them about going to get the inspector if they wanted to show something off. I reminded everyone too that questions from the inspector are not a Mastermind quiz: they could help each other out, fetch policies and explain, show documents that they find useful – be ‘a team’. Afterwards, staff told me that this really helped. While I did this the inspector was watching children arrive and introducing herself to staff. It helped that the inspector was smiley and personable and worked hard to put everyone at their ease. The next task was to show the inspector round. Under the ‘old’ framework this ‘tour’ was more to do with familiarising the inspector with the setting. Under the new framework it is a ‘learning walk’ and an opportunity to show, explain and justify absolutely every aspect of the provision. Our setting is quite big so we did it twice – the first time was more of a ‘whizz round’ explaining how and why the rooms and staff are organised as they are. During this walk we discussed how we manage transitions into nursery, between groups and to school. We discussed how staff are deployed in each room and how different qualification levels work together. We discussed free-play, free-flow and focused activity times. We discussed mealtimes and the provision of self-care spaces. You’ll notice that I used the word ‘discussed’ a lot here. It was very much that – throughout the inspection we discussed as professionals the decisions we had made, why we had made them and how they had impacted on the children in our care. We talked about how we tried things and changed things and reflected on our provision. It was seen as a strength (in our subsequent feedback) that we were always evolving, reviewing, adapting, watching and evaluating to be sure that we are meeting the children’s needs. As a manager it was exhausting but exhilarating to be able to explain our philosophies and demonstrate how and why we do things. Following the first quick walk through we had a more intense tour of each room looking closely at how staff were working with the children, what equipment they were using, how resources were stored, what was available for children to freely choose and use. Some challenging questions about CoEL came in here as we discussed the continuous provision resources we have out. During this second walk through I made sure that I explained how were had interpreted Cultural Capital in our setting, by showing a display of all our community visits with children the inspector could see and talk with in the setting (so, not something we had done once, years ago!). I made sure that I brought up the 3 i’s and explained how we, as a team, had worked together to reach a point of confidence in all staff. I showed her our development plan and our staff meeting notes to demonstrate the ongoing nature of the work. I raised them myself to show the inspector that my knowledge is current, relevant and working for the benefit of the children. I found out afterwards that all the things I raised with her as having been part of a collaborate process with the team were ‘checked out’ with individual staff of differing qualification levels to make sure what I had said was correct. We spent a long time in our gardens discussing the developments we had made since our last inspection. The development of the outside area was a recommendation from last time. I explained the training that staff had had and the inspector told me that she had seen the videos I had posted on our nursery Facebook page. I was pleased that the inspector had done her research before coming to us. During this time we were interrupted by staff wanting to show the inspector their activities – one wanted to show off a new yoga initiative she was introducing across the nursery. Another wanted to show their ‘Risk Rangers’ work they were doing in the pre-school room where we are helping children to manage their own risk by being able to confidently identify what might go wrong. Incidentally, both of these activities were ‘name-checked’ in the final report, much to the delight of the associated staff! One important part of the inspection is the ‘Joint Observation’. This observation, involving the inspector and the setting manager, can be of any member of staff doing any activity. It is an opportunity for the inspector to evaluate the effectiveness of the manager. Looking to see how well the manager can identify 'outstanding', 'good' or practice that 'requires improvement', the inspector will discuss afterwards how practice could be improved, staff developed, children better ‘planned for’ etc. We had already decided to observe an outside planting and growing activity. Following the activity we discussed the staff member’s use of open and closed questions, their responses to children’s ongoing learning and her ability to plan ‘in the moment’ as particular learning points evolved. Following this busy morning I met with the inspector for a ‘what have we seen so far?’ conversation. This was a crucial part of the inspection for me. It really gave me a chance to know exactly what the inspector was thinking and what we needed to be sure to demonstrate and discuss in the afternoon. I left this meeting with a list of things I wanted to remind the staff about so that they could be sure to show them during the afternoon. Among the things I asked the staff to make sure they were showing were how we support children’s problem solving skills and critical thinking. Knowing that the inspector felt she hadn’t seen enough evidence to make a judgement in this area was really helpful – it gave us the opportunity to ‘tweak’ our afternoon activities to ensure that we were giving the inspector a picture of everything we do. The meeting also let me know which children the inspector had been ‘tracking’ and so gave me time to organise time away from their group for the respective key people and also gave me time to sort their records ready for discussion later. The inspector then took a short lunch break. Despite us offering her a space in the nursery to use, she went and sat in her car. This gave everyone a chance to prepare themselves for the afternoon. At the busy end of lunch / going home / arrival time the inspector positioned herself in the centre of the nursery and watched as we did what we always do in terms of parent handovers and welcoming children in. As in a ‘normal’ nursery day I was answering the door, and a grandparent I didn’t recognise came to collect his grandchild. As per our policy I didn’t let him in and went to find the child’s key person to confirm their identity. All this under the inspector’s nose. When we did let the grandparent in he was a bit cross that we’d not given him immediate access, but we followed our policy and explained to him why and that the safeguarding of the children was paramount. He went home a bit grumbly. It wasn’t quite the smooth ‘change over’ that I would have hoped for and I knew it would be discussed at the manager’s meeting. For the next couple of hours the inspector spent her time in the classrooms talking to staff and children. Reports from all staff were very similar and the following themes were discussed: · How staff planned for their key children and decided what to do next (the 3 i’s question!) · Staff knowledge and understanding of safeguarding – both signs, symptoms, nursery policy, reporting arrangements and Prevent · Staff wellbeing – workload, management support · Behaviour management – how our policy worked in practice and how it was adapted for children of different ages · Reflective practice, CPD and support for further qualifications The inspector talked to children about their play and asked them about being at our nursery: the ‘what’s it like to be a child in this place?’ question. The inspector then asked me and my co-manager to walk through the nursery together again and she asked questions about how resources were stored and presented to children, how routines were managed and how staff were deployed. Again, this was a discussion and felt like an opportunity to explain our philosophy. Mid afternoon was the ‘Leadership and management meeting’. My co-manager and I sat with the inspector and discussed the full extent of our provision. We made sure we had all our documents to hand and our Tapestry pages ready to discuss. In the meeting we went back over many of the points we had already touched upon during the day and we were able to use our paperwork to ‘back up’ and evidence what we had been saying. We were asked to discuss any safeguarding referrals and the inspector reviewed our documents. We spoke at length about our cohort tracking – how we did it, why we did it in the way we did and how we used it to plan interventions and monitor progression. When we were talking about this I used my Tapestry tracking screens to show how observations linked to assessments, which linked to further observations or Reflections. The inspector was impressed by the way in which we ‘joined up’ the information about each child, whether that was from parents at starting, baseline assessments, snapshot observations or longer more focused observations. She asked in-depth questions about the SEND support we have in place and asked detailed questions about additional funding and how it is used. She asked about complaints we had received and any notifications we had made to Ofsted since our last inspection. We had had a complaint made about us and the inspector looked closely at how we had managed it. It had been a complaint about an accident and the inspector looked at the notes from the related meetings, the risk assessments we had completed after the event and the policy and procedure changes that had been put into place as a consequence. She was happy that we had managed the complaint appropriately. My co-manager is also our SENCo and DSL and she was ‘quizzed’ about referrals she had made and how we work with outside agencies. The situation with the grandparent at lunchtime was discussed at length and the inspector listened as we explained about our safeguarding policy and our duty of care. She asked us if we thought our staff team would feel similarly confident to challenge a grandparent on the doorstep and we said that we were sure they would – she agreed with us and told us that actually she had already asked them! At the end of the meeting we were asked if there was anything else we felt we needed to tell the inspector or show her – we asked for a few minutes just to chat together and go through the inspection handbook to make sure we felt we had covered everything. The inspector was happy to give us this time. And then feedback … “I’m delighted to tell you that you have maintained your outstanding judgement” I didn’t really hear anything after that! The inspector was on site for 9 hours …. Reflecting on the experience This was my fifth early years inspection as an owner/manager and it was by far the most challenging. It was the 'discussion' nature of the inspection that was so challenging – and that was definitely a good thing. Throughout the inspection we had the opportunity to share, explain, justify and evidence everything we do. Staff felt fully involved and were very much part of the process rather than just being ’on display’. That we involve staff in all decisions, cascade training and involve the whole team in reflective practice made the process very much easier. All the staff understand and contribute to the philosophy of our setting and this was a shared inspection during which everyone was keen to show off what we do. We have already got an action plan to take us through to the next inspection … onwards and upwards!

I often listened with jealousy when my partner and friends talked about working from home - later starts, pyjamas all day and constant coffee breaks sounded amazing (insert winking emoji here). Alas, being a classroom teacher, I never imagined a situation where working from home would ever be a possibility let alone a long-term reality. Well, what do you know? It became real very quickly and taught me a great deal about how I teach and how my pupils learn. I am a subject teacher at an independent prep school (I say as I duck to avoid the rotten fruit). I have a sad feeling that “normal teaching” is a long way off. Teaching remotely doesn’t look like it will need to happen in September but it could well be required in the future. I know teaching remotely doesn’t look the same for everyone, but we should all be open to new ideas and strategies and also, where possible, use our own and others’ experience to prevent some easy to make mistakes and time-wasting misconceptions. My pupils are fortunate enough to use tablets and having used these tools for 4 or 5 years both the pupils and staff are comfortable with them. The value of having access to and effective use of technology was totally underestimated when we transitioned from classroom to remote teaching. Long before the lockdown, my classes and I were, when appropriate, sharing resources, editing and annotating activity sheets and providing marking and feedback using this technology. The key change brought about by the pandemic is the way we, as teachers, “transferred” our subject knowledge to the pupils - enter Zoom. Zoom was quickly agreed by our SMT to be the tool that would link our teachers and pupils. Providing “live” or real-time lessons for our pupils was initially considered a logical, appropriate and achievable platform for delivering lessons and as we embarked upon lockdown just before the Easter holidays. That is how remote learning would look. Easter was spent watching YouTube tutorials for Zoom and trying out the functionality on friends and families. However, pretty quickly we came across a number of serious barriers… Live lessons (LL) that mimic the timetable would mean our pupils would need to be on their screens for 6 or 7 hours a day. Similarly, our teachers, many of whom look after children or loved ones, would be expected to be tied in for a similar chunk of the day. (Imagine a parent with two young children trying to deliver 5 different hour-long live zooms every day) Sticking strictly to a timetable isn’t possible for all families and if pupils are prevented from accessing the LL they should not be disadvantaged by missing it. Security on these LL was discovered to be a concern - fortunately we were not affected. While some staff still did LL, most opted for pre-recorded lessons (PRL) instead (without wanting to talk too much tech, Zoom is well known as a live, conference call style platform, but it also allows users to pre-record a chunk of video which can then be saved and shared with the intended recipients - pupils in this case). This system meant the work for the week ahead would be shared via an online platform by 8am on Monday morning. Pupils were encouraged to do English when English appeared on their (revised) timetable and History when it was supposed to be History. At these times, teachers were “online” to respond to questions, offer feedback and handle (m)any technical issues. No live video was expected here. We did, however, explain to parents and pupils that they could do the sessions when it suited them and their family best - we aimed to prioritise flexibility. These are a few (but really significant) advantages of opting for PRL... PRL provides freedom for pupils and their families. Some pupils chose to wake early and do 4 or 5 hours of work so that they were done by lunchtime. Families also had the freedom and autonomy to take a “staycation” or day out so remote learning took a back seat; however, knowing what work had been set meant it could be done in advance or when they returned. We really wanted families to do this. In the weird circumstances of the pandemic, making the most of the weather, precious family time and managing anxieties were all aspects of lockdown we didn’t want to clash with LL. The PRL was (and still is) always available. Pupils could re-watch, rewind, pause the video explanation until their understanding was solid. These videos are available over the summer for pupils to access for reinforcement and recap if they require them. Pupils could self - differentiate by choosing the pace with which they covered the new material. Following on from above, PRL unintentionally became a bespoke revision resource. Teachers have the freedom to work in their own time. The well-being of teachers around the country is something I predict will have suffered immensely over the last 3 or 4 months (and continues…). PRL can be created in the evenings, when children are asleep, using a couple of hours on the weekend or whenever it suits the individual. Opting for this strategy, teachers could manage their homelife, care for loved ones and even leave the house for a few hours to exercise or enjoy the sunshine with their family (perhaps like those with numerous other occupations were able to do). Why are Live Lessons in demand (and by whom)? We did parental, pupil and staff surveys every few weeks during the summer term to gauge what we were doing well and what we could improve. The majority of pupils and staff preferred PRL: reasons for these choices included better understanding, greater progress and more flexible learning styles. When parents showed a preference (sometimes an irrational demand) for LL, their explanation was along the lines of… “online lessons tied their children down and gave them the freedom to do some meaningful work” - there was never a mention of the learning being better due to LL. Government, too, criticised (mainly state schools) for not providing enough LL. Perhaps the government and parents who harbour frustration at the lack of LL feel that if teachers aren’t teaching live, they are having a late start, sitting in their pyjamas and having constant coffee breaks. I can see why many (non-teachers) hold the assumption that LL will be better than PRL, but the evidence suggests otherwise. What have I learnt? Pre-recorded videos are going to become a regular addition to my lessons even when I return to classroom teaching. With a short 5-minute explanatory video, I have provided a resource that can be watched at various speeds and numerous times (differentiation). Additionally, it can be shared with pupils and parents to assist those children who require scaffolding and support at home. It also doubles as a revision tool to use before assessments or at the end of a topic. PR videos can replace my usual explanations in a lesson. Explanations that go off on tangents and get derailed by an unconnected question or incident of poor behaviour. These explanations are “lost” as a resource once they leave my mouth (sometimes thankfully). While pupils watch these videos, it will also provide 5 minutes for me to visit the students, check homework was completed, offer help or assistance while the others are engaged. Chunking is key. I progressed to recording my videos in sections; asking pupils to pause the video, read a resource, complete a short task and then un-pause once completed (the different times pupils take to follow these instructions links to the differentiation mentioned above). I found an obvious improvement in levels of quality and completion rates when compared to a 10- or 15-minute video without obvious breaks and intervals. With a LL or even in real time in the classroom, when I move on with the lesson there will inevitably be pupils who have not finished the task. Delivery makes a big difference. Having taught for 12 years, I’d never seen myself teach. Watching some of the PR videos demonstrated obvious things that I was great at, but also habits and idiosyncrasies that must decrease the effectiveness of my teaching. It felt like personal CPD. In the classroom I would normally give so much guidance and support that almost all pupils submitted the same work - how boring. Seeing the natural variation and the different interpretation of my activities was refreshing and it meant marking and feedback was more enjoyable. I will save so much paper in future. In conclusion, the pandemic shocked us all but it had its silver linings. In over a decade of teaching, I never grew as much or thought as creatively as I did in the weeks we were locked down. It’s easy to worry excessively about the pupils who did not “engage” fully in remote learning. This will have an impact especially on pupils who rely on schools as a safe place, for structure and for something as simple as a healthy daily meal. But it mustn’t be forgotten that over 13 years of school, missing one term amounts to around 2.5% of an education. As passionate and devoted teachers, we should be confident that, with the incredible creativity and progress we have made due to the pandemic, we can not only catch up the missing 2.5%, but we can actually surpass it.

I have worked in Early Years education for nearly 30 years now and this has never been my favourite time of year. Whilst I love the smell of Autumn in the air and the idea of new beginnings and fresh starts, I like it better when there is a routine. When everyone is settled in and we all know where we are at! In staffrooms across the land, the weekly cost of the tea and coffee fund has now been agreed (any milk other than cows…bring your own), everyone has promised not to leave their dirty cups lying around and a new dishwasher rota with passive aggressive undertones has been laminated and sellotaped to the wall (much to the caretakers ongoing angst and disgust), with everyone secure in the knowledge that they will ignore it! But, this year there has been more than the usual feeling of anxiety about going back to work. This is not about ‘getting back to normal’ it is very much about finding that new normal in a landscape that seems to be forever changing. What is recommended today might change tomorrow. We are going to have to be more flexible and adaptable than we have ever been, not only around the learning provision that we are creating for our children, but also in respect of our own thinking and relationships with each other. With lots of aspects of the ‘familiar’ in terms of what we do and how we do it, we are starting from a point of ‘unfamiliar’ and that can cause anxiety and uncertainly. But it is also an opportunity to use this discomfort, as a moment to reflect and re-examine our practice, change it up and make it better not just for the period of the pandemic, but long term. It is rare in the sort of work that we do with children that we have the time (or the energy) to stop and re-evaluate and challenge ourselves about why we do what we do, but if we are looking for any positives to come out of the Corona pandemic, the opportunity to re-evaluate our practice is one of them. The Early Years is built on a foundation of play based learning. Play is the most important and effective tool that we have to enable the children that we work with to become the best that they can be. We talk a lot about the ‘uniqueness’ of children and creating ‘individual’ learning journeys that reflect specific interests of the children in our care, but often this individuality can be squeezed out of our day to day practice by the demands of ‘everything else’. Practitioners that I work with are often put under pressure to ‘teach’ in a way that is not developmentally appropriate for the children they are working with, using more formal methods of delivering knowledge that put children off rather than engage them. On the whole, children are curious and active investigators of the world that they inhabit. It doesn’t take much to actively engage them at a deep level if the environment and resourcing is appropriate. High levels of engagement will result in high levels of wellbeing, progress and attainment. Low levels of engagement result in low level wellbeing and low levels of progress and learning. They also encourage children to develop negative attitudes to learning, which once in place are very difficult to change. As adults our job is not just to deliver facts that we think children need to know, we are the co-constructors of children’s learning. Learning together should be a partnership, a carefully balanced process that is based on the most appropriate way for children of this age and stage of development to learn…play. We want children to have some ‘agency’ in their own learning. This means that they have the opportunity to be independent learners. Using the environment and resources as a vehicle for gathering knowledge and experience as well as incorporating some positive risk taking. For this to happen we need to take cues from our observations of children’s habits, preferences and behaviours in play rather than just our topic planning. Children also need time to play that isn’t restricted by an overly rigid timetable. An environment that is based on skill development and experience, rather than one that is based on topic or theme will provide the best opportunities for engagement. Lots of children really enjoy engaging with a topic, theme or story when an adult is involved in leading the learning. But they often struggle with keeping that high level of engagement when they are playing in the environment with no adult to support them. For this reason, keep any topic or theme (if you have one) to adult led sessions and occasional provision enhancements. I try and make the areas of provision linked to skill development. If children are working in the malleable materials area then I want them to experience lots of skills related to materials of different malleability like, rolling, squashing, imprinting, coiling, modelling, joining, cutting… If they can experience them through their own interests rather than an ‘activity’ that everyone has to do, then they are more likely to engage, learn and retain the information. So rather than everyone making a coil pot for a Diwali candle – whether you want to or not – I would fill my malleable materials area with resources that enabled children to experiment with rolling and coiling. What they make is immaterial, it is their processing of the experience that is important. I would still talk to the children about Diwali, read stories, show artefacts and share experiences. But having to make a coil pot for a tealight doesn’t demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of any aspect of Diwali, so why require children to do it? If they decide they want to make a coil pot, then absolutely let them make one. If they would rather make a MASSIVE snake and they are using all of the same rolling and coiling techniques, then why not? When I think about how my practice has changed over the last 30 years, this move from ‘activities’ and ‘topic’ planning to skills and experiences was by far the biggest and most uncomfortable shift in my thinking. But it is the one that has made the most significant impact on me as a practitioner and the potential for children’s learning. Now that we are thinking about creating a Covid safe environment, an approach that is more skills and experience based rather than activity based lends itself to this sort of planning. Many settings have reduced the number of areas of provision that they have made available for their children and also had to think again about some of their resources. If you are creating an environment that constantly reflects the needs of your children then you will be observing, reflecting and then making sure you establish areas of provision that will support and extend children in their future learning. A good question to ask yourself (and your team) is ‘why have you chosen those areas of provision?’ Are they based on assessment, observation and children’s interests or do you have them because you have always had them or because they are linked to your topic or theme? Once you have established which areas of provision have the potential to really engage your children in their learning, then you can start to think about the resources that you put into each area. To help practitioners think about resourcing, I often get them to refer back to the Characteristics of Effective Learning. These characteristics should underpin the resources that you have in place and will help to ensure that they are not too narrow or topic focussed. So, in any area that you set up, do the resources allow your children to play and explore? In simple terms, do the children want to play with them? Are they interested? Also, is there potential for them to explore their learning. Are the resources open ended enough for different children to interpret in different ways? If they are too narrow, then it is unlikely that the majority of children will want to engage with them. Do your areas of provision promote active learning? We ideally want spaces where children will want to engage and keep trying, even when things get tricky! Once again, if the resources in the areas that you create are linked to interests and exploration then children are able to interpret them in ways that link to their own unique preferences. And finally, do your areas of provision create opportunities for children to be creative and critical thinkers? These are areas that support children in being solution finders, strategy developers and encourage resilience. If an area of provision has only one possible outcome or requirement like ‘make a jungle mask’ or ‘paint a self-portrait’ then we are limiting the possibilities of exploration, problem solving and strategising (not to mention engagement). If instead children are encouraged to ‘cut, stick and join’ or ‘paint using a variety of media and tools’ we open up endless possibilities for learning. We are unique people, working with unique children in some very unique circumstances that are going to test our ingenuity, creativity and resilience. There will undoubtedly be lots of challenges ahead but we must also look out for the opportunities to use this disruption to our normal practice to re-evaluate what we do and improve it.

The homework debate has taken a back foot lately, considering that nearly all work has been homework for the last few months. Or “home learning” or “remote education” or whichever phrase you prefer. But as children return to school the traditional idea of homework will become a reality again so let’s take some time to think about it. In this article we will discuss the pros, cons, and efficacy of homework. Do I have to? In 2018 Damien Hinds outlined his position on homework: “Just to be clear: schools are not obliged to set homework, and some don’t. But when schools do set homework, children do need to do it. We trust individual school head teachers to decide what their policy on homework will be, and what happens if pupils don’t do what’s set. Policy and approach won’t be the same in all cases. Autonomy for schools, and the diversity that comes with it, is at the heart of this government’s approach to education.” This falls into the category, along with so many other things, of the government telling schools to do what they think is best, which on one hand is great. Every school and every child is different so I can’t think of a way a universal, statutory homework policy would work for everyone. However, this approach naturally creates a divide and makes it difficult to get a consistent picture of what educators should be doing and what works best with regards to homework. Will it help? Before talking about what homework works best, we need to discuss if homework even works at all. This article written by Youki Terada, explains the difference in the efficacy of homework on various age groups. The general trend being the older the person, the more useful homework becomes. However, setting too much homework and the associated risk is a factor for all ages, particularly for young adults in high school. Another supporting piece of research for this argument comes from the Education Endowment Foundation which states, “There is a relatively consistent picture that pupils in schools which give more homework perform better, although for primary age pupils the difference is small. However, there are only a small number of studies which have investigated whether this relationship is due to the homework itself, rather than other school factors” This article in The Guardian further exemplifies the difference between homework for primary school children and secondary school children. Professor John Hattie says the effect homework has in primary schools is negligible but makes a bigger difference for secondary schools. So, is it worth the hassle for primary school teachers? Another interesting thing Hattie says is, “The worst thing you can do with homework is give kids projects; the best thing you can do is reinforce something you’ve already learned.” I’m not sure I agree entirely with this, at least from my primary school teacher perspective. Homework can be a good method for reinforcing some previous learning. However, if you consider the average classroom, you have three broad levels of ability: the almost cliched ‘lower, middle, upper’. Realistically, we know each of these categories has their own subcategories. Like your “low-lows” and your “upper-middles”. So, for a piece of homework to be effective in reinforcing something, it still needs to be pitched at the correct level and scaffolded in some way. Especially since you may not know how much support they will be getting at home. How many iterations of this homework are you going to make? Each additional one takes up more time. Time that could probably be better spent planning work to do in the class or running an intervention session. On the other hand, a “project” can mean many things. In my practice, a homework project was based around a topic that was relevant at the time, had a much longer time limit and was more open ended in how it could be completed. An example would be the World War Two project: I set this halfway through the topic to be completed at the end (so around 6 weeks to complete it). The instructions were simple “create something relating to our World War Two topic.” We talked about a few ideas before we went home that day and I could see the children were already excited to get started. This “project” allowed them to use their imaginations and practice a skill they knew they were good at and wanted to use. Some made sculptures, some wrote stories. One child wrote a song and performed it in front of the class! When I set this project, I didn’t set it to fill any gaps in their knowledge or raise their history score. I set it so they could have some freedom in their own learning. Give them an opportunity to manage their own time. Take ownership over it and create something which gave them a sense of pride. All parents were involved in some way or another, and because this was a homework project, they got to see their child working passionately on something. Perhaps what Hattie was saying is that projects with no prior context, where the child has no solid ground to start, are not helpful. There I agree wholeheartedly. Whatever work you set needs to be set in a foundation otherwise it is very shaky ground for the child. Will it hurt? Another criticism of homework is that it actually widens the gap between higher and lower attainers. Generally speaking, it’s your higher attaining students who will be receiving more help from adults, have access to better resources and spend more time when doing homework. If the only reason you are setting homework is to raise academic performance, then this isn’t the group that needs targeting. It’s your lower attainers who would benefit from the extra help. But is homework the best way to provide that extra help? I think in primary school, we shouldn’t be seeing homework as a tool to raise academic achievement. I don’t think the possible risks, pitfalls and time constraints make up for the reportedly small difference it can make. But that’s not to say it should be abolished completely. I think there are a lot of benefits to homework, we may just need to shift the focus of it slightly. Another practical reason why it’s hard to “fill gaps” of learning with homework is that these “gaps” often present themselves on the day of teaching. This is also when you want to try and fill the gap, so it doesn’t carry on and disrupt future learning. But when is the teacher supposed to plan and resource this homework so it can go out at the end of that day? Parental involvement is key. And I don’t necessarily mean parents sitting down with their children and going through the homework every time. In my eyes, one of the most important reasons for setting homework is to give the adults at home another opportunity to be involved in their child’s learning. This involvement can range from checking over the homework and providing some positive reinforcement to sitting down and working through it together. Either way, it can help communicate to them what their child is learning and at what level. What the child is really good at and what they need to improve on. Basically, some of the things you try and squeeze into the 10-minute parents’ evening window, twice a year. Additionally, as well as the research which shows the little impact homework can have for primary aged children, and the risk of widening gaps, and the inherent strain it puts on practitioners, there is worrying evidence to suggest the damaging effects it can have on young people’s mental health and well-being. This report from the Ofsted Parents Panel finds that the stress homework causes is overwhelming and becomes detrimental to their health, self-esteem and confidence. A headteacher in this article from the Telegraph thinks homework and class learning working in tandem with one another can help to develop children’s independence. While I agree, as with all other work it would come down to the individual child. Depending on the content, frequency, difficulty, relevance - and a host of other factors - homework could easily become alienating for a child and detrimental to their confidence. Here is a quote from the article: “The experts disagree on the impact of homework on a child’s wellbeing. On the one hand, Balfour argues that homework encourages “independence and confidence” and “that sense that they can do it, and that their point of view is a valid one”. This may be true in small doses, but are children being asked to do too much homework at a young age? If so, there could be implications for a child’s mental health. “Too much homework, too much pressure, will have an impact on self-esteem: ‘Am I good enough? Can I keep up?’” Dr Fine explains.” What now? It is important for practitioners and SLT to know they control how it should work. They know their children and families best. So, here’s your homework: start with the “why?” Why are you setting this homework in the first place? Is it to fill gaps? Foster life skills? Engage parents? Once you know that, you have a foundation. A strong ground on which to move forward and decide how best to help your children. Your deadline is just before you sit down to plan your next homework activity.