Lockdown has brought many difficulties and challenges in education.
Huge strides in online education have been made in months that perhaps previously would have taken years. Teachers have created learning packs, online lessons and updated communication systems - rising to the challenge of how to educate their pupils without the the essential face-to-face contact and personal interaction.
Children have spent weeks and months away from the support bubble of a school, from their friends, from their safe place. Some will have thrived in a new family bubble – building new self-esteem and confidence. Others will have found it a challenge. Learning will have been lost but more importantly, their circumstances could have changed. They may have learned a deeper understanding of what it means to live in poverty, or encountered this for the first time. They may have learned to hide, to become invisible, to protect themselves from adults who are not safe, without the respite that school can provide.
Many...
In these new and uncertain times, pupils will have spent many months away from school due to the closures put in place as a result of Covid-19.
Learning has been disrupted and will have been lost.
In this video, presented by our Senior Principal Analyst - Phillip Burton, we look at the context of school closures, some of the studies regarding learning loss and how it can be measured, and offer a resource to enable you to measure what has taken place.
https://youtu.be/-zOum1ew_GU
Read our Blog exploring Learning Loss here..
https://daisi.education/learning-loss/
DAISI Education is committed to supporting schools and pupils and we are working hard to find ways of handling learning loss through our Question Level Analysis both for Primary and Secondary Schools.
Having an early analysis can put your teachers in control and able to help your pupils realise their potential over time. Click here for more information..
https://youtu.be/IckMyRvpMZw
DAISI Education Question Level Analysis
Thank you for reading this blog and watching...
In these new and uncertain times, pupils will have spent many months away from school due to the closures put in place as a result of Covid-19.
Schools in England were closed to all pupils except those of key-workers and vulnerable children on the 20th March 2019 and have only reopened to certain pupils in the last few weeks.
Learning has been disrupted and will have been lost.
As this is an unprecedented situation in the UK, there is no previous research that can show us what the educational impact of COVID-19 school closures might be.
Never in our lifetimes have so many schools been closed for so many children.
We prize attendance in our schools and often use posters like this to make children and parents aware of why time at school is so important. But what happens if the whole school is closed and everyone stops attending?
Has this happened before..?
Closed Schools
Studies of previous school closures abroad show a...
Home Learning from DAISI Education
“Such an Inspiring collection of Links & Resources”
We present a wide range of fun, educational and engaging resources schools can share with pupils and families.
This long list of links and resources was put together over the summer of 2020 and has continued to grow ever since. Many thanks to those from around the world who have suggested ideas and links.
We hope you continue to find them useful!
Learning Resources
Check out these links for Primary and Secondary age.
Early Years
Activities for 2-5 year old.. Storytime to colouring to crafts and more...
Tour the World and Beyond
See the world from space and live elephants in Africa...
Craft Activities
100s of ideas from a variety of sources..
Free Colouring Sheets
Here are over 100 patterns and pictures to choose from..
Museums and Galleries
Visit the Louvre, British Museum and more...
Fun Activities at home..
100s of Ideas and Links "What a huge help for families!"
Science Experiments
Create giant bubbles, a rocket that blasts off and more..
Baking...
The new Ofsted framework states that inspections will not examine any internal school data.
But, in practice, what does this mean for schools?
What have staff said?
Feedback from Staff who have gone through the new framework stated that conversations were not data-centred but did assume you had a good working knowledge of the external data for your school.
Data was discussed as an informer to the team’s approach, not as the sword of Damocles it has been. Context was investigated in thorough detail, giving us a chance to tell our story.
DAN MORROW - CEO, Woodland Academies Trust
However, when you read on, you see that the external data does inform what the deep dives look to see...
Instead, the deep dives commenced with immediate observations of staff through learning walks (all accompanied by phase/subject leads) and through hearing children read: the year one children who had not reached GLD, the year twos who had not secured the phonics-screening check, and the...
The new Ofsted Inspection Framework speaks a lot about Curriculum.
Whilst the new directed focus has been welcomed, there is a lot of misunderstanding about what this means in practice. Schools are buying in help from outside sources against Ofsted Advice and Ofsted are constantly claiming there is no "Ofsted curriculum".
So what will inspectors be looking for in your school curriculum from September 2019 onwards?
What do they mean by a good or outstanding "quality of education"?
In this article, we hope to help answer these questions by looking at Amanda Spielman's recent speech, the results of the Ofsted research project and the Ofsted School inspection Handbook.
Amanda Spielman
In a speech in 2019 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Amanda Spielman was discussing the Ofsted research into Curriculum and what this means moving forward.
The quality of education judgement does consider how well pupils are doing in national assessments and qualifications. But this should be the reflection of what children have...
This series of articles examines Ofsted Inspectors' comments, as published in their Inspection Reports, in relation to "Outstanding" schools.
In this article, we will have a look at work in pupils' books.
Work in Books
In the 2018 Ofsted School inspection handbook, which was the current one at the time of these inspections, Ofsted said that (my emphasis added):
188. Inspectors will gather evidence about the progress of current pupils through: • observations in lessons • discussions with pupils about their understanding of things they have been learning about • scrutiny of pupils’ acquisition of knowledge, understanding and skills over time as shown in their work, including that in their books • the school’s own information, taking account of the quality and rigour of the assessment on which it is based.
However, in the draft 2019 handbook, Ofsted are proposing to essentially remove the last bullet point. They say:
178. While they will consider the school’s use of assessment (see paras...
In this series of articles, we are looking at Ofsted inspectors' comments on schools which they have judged to be outstanding.
In this article, we'll have a look at their comments regarding the "most able" pupils (typically pupils which a high Prior Attainment).
The attainment and progress of most able pupils
It is not surprising that in these schools the most able pupils are working above age-related expectations. However, it seems that these pupils exceed even the high attainment shown nationally for high prior attainers:
Teachers also ensure that the most able are regularly challenged to reach and exceed high targets. The most able pupils made outstanding progress in reading, writing and mathematics.The most able pupils in the school attain particularly well compared with similar pupils nationally.
It should be noted that, under the KS2 Progress calculation methodology, there is a lower cap on how much progress can be measured for high prior attainers compared to others. For example, a Level 3 student...
In this series of articles, we are looking at Ofsted inspector's comments regarding Outstanding schools.
In this article, we will be looking at their comments in relation to Early Years Provision.
Early Years Provision
Ofsted comments about the dedication of the staff:
Leaders, teachers and teaching assistants in the early years are extremely dedicated to ensuring that children get the best start.Leadership is highly effective, with a strong emphasis on providing care and nurture as well as challenge and ambition.The high quality of phonics teaching contributes to this success.
and their ambition for the children:
They plan activities which consistently provide the right level of difficulty for all ability groups.Leaders have ensured that the early years curriculum is interesting, engaging, broad and balanced. Children develop curiosity and want to find out more. Most activities have a clear purpose behind them and build upon what the children have previously learned to do.
Two schools which were judged "Outstanding" overall were only "Good" for Early Years:
However,...
In this series of articles, we are looking at Ofsted inspectors' comments made when inspecting "outstanding" schools.
In this article, we'll see what those comments were regarding phonics.
Comparison with the National Average
As might be expected for outstanding schools, the percentage of pupils who have passed the Year 1 phonics is above the national average. And it generally is not a one-off.
Attainment in the phonics screening check is consistently above national expectations. The proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check has been consistently above the national average for the last three years.
Inspectors also look at those pupils who don't pass in Year 1. Nearly all of them (but not necessarily 100%) pass by the end of Year 2.
Most of the very small number of pupils not achieving the standard by the end of Year 1 go on to meet it by the end of Year 2. By the end of Year 2, almost...
