All of the techniques mentioned below are ones I have used throughout my teaching career throughout the education sector and can be adapted to suit all teachers and students. There are many more to discover and you’ll find that the more you try these, the more you will find your own exercises. 

Be present: Encourage all to be fully present in each moment. Notice what you hear, see, smell, taste and can touch. Notice how you feel in that moment. Notice the beauty around you. 

Name it to tame it: Through being self-aware and knowing which thoughts and feelings are arising in each moment and situation, we can take control and allow ourselves space to respond rather than react. 

It’s ok to not be ok: This is a phrase employed now within mental health and it is certainly true. However, teachers and school staff need to model this to students to show them how true it is. Take away any judgement and simply allow yourselves and each other to be and feel whatever arises in that moment. 

It’s ok not to know the answer: Currently, we are all connected in not knowing what is going to happen, how things will progress or how school will be in the near future. Admitting to a student that you also don’t know, may not provide the answer or reassurance they wish for however it shows that not knowing is ok too. The way forward can be discovered and navigated together.   

Mindful/Compassionate listening: Everyone wants and needs to be heard. Practice compassionate listening where all are listened to fully and heard no matter how difficult that may be. Encourage students to listen to each other and teach them compassionate listening by not wanting to offer answers or solutions but simply allowing them to talk and express their thoughts and feelings however they need to. 

See the individual: Every student and teacher will have experienced lockdown completely differently and that can be compassionately acknowledged. Through being encouraged to share their thoughts and feelings and to be accepted for those, all will feel acknowledged.

Build silence/ quiet into the day/lesson: Embrace moments where teachers and students can find space within their day through quiet/ silence. 

Reset: Take a moment to breathe and reset. The teacher can lead and model this by encouraging students to take a breath between activities/ tasks etc or when they enter or  leave the room. 

Gratitude practices: Encourage students to look for the positives and things they are grateful for throughout the day that they may share at the end of the day. Once they start being grateful, they will notice more and more the positives throughout the day and also want to offer them to others. 

Get outside: Notice the beauty of nature through mindful walks which focus on their environment and bringing them into the present moment. 

Kindness: Model kindness throughout the whole school staff as well as towards students and students to each other. This can be led by teachers and/or students and will bring many quick benefits to all involved. 

Humour: By being in the present moment more and appreciating it all then we can see and experience the humour in each situation. Allow the fun in and the lightness in interactions.  

STOP: 

S = Stop: whatever you’re doing, just pause 

T = Take a breath and follow it coming in and going out if it helps, say ‘in’ as you’re breathing in and ‘out’ as you let it go

O = Observe your thoughts, feelings and emotions. Name them if that will help and observe how the body feels. 

P = Proceed mindfully. Is there something you need to move into the next moment? Can a chat with a friend help? Do you need a drink of water? Will fresh air help? 

A teacher can show this to students talking them through each part and then also modelling it in class and students can model that to each other, sharing what they are doing and trusting that it’s ok to STOP when needed.  

There are many benefits in practising Mindfulness and Compassion in schools and these apply to all adults and young people. I have included some of them below, however there are many more and I encourage you to find them.

• Improved behaviour 
• Improved personal and professional interactions
• Improved performance in lessons and achievement
• Greater confidence and self-esteem 
• Reduced stress and anxiety 
• More positivity 

Presented here is a practical way we as educators can take action into that new, fresh  way we looked at things coming out of lockdown. By collaborating with the ‘Journey for Peace’ project, we can support and invest in the innovation of visually impaired (VI) young people and their education around the world. You may have felt isolated during lockdown and struggled to adapt. This is often the ‘norm’ for VI young people, who are masters of adaptation in challenging environments on a day to day basis. They have much to teach us all in seeing things differently. Would you like to get involved in our global vision?

The Visually-Impaired and New Ideas

As the UK, and the world beyond, looks for new trade and ideas to stem the expected economic downturns, we can learn much from the innovations of VI young people who, in ‘seeing things differently’, know full well how to adapt and conquer barriers in their stride. Unemployment for VI is a global concern, and it is challenged by St.Vincent’s school for sensory impairment in Liverpool through a creative curriculum designed to nurture strengths, forge routes to employment and generate entrepreneurial new trade internationally with and for VI.

This creative curriculum feeds into the design ideas generated for the Sightbox, a ‘toolkit’ for access to sports and education shared out of St.Vincent’s with VI schools internationally. This thus far includes: Pakistan, India, Rwanda, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, Nepal, Indonesia, Peru, Virgin Islands, Sierra Leone and Gambia. More recently ‘Mercy Ships’ will now have sightboxes ‘in residence’ connecting medicine and education on their journeys. As a school, your involvement with us could come within your SMSC, Citizenship, ‘British Values’, Design Technology and / or Duke of Edinburgh Award, framing an exciting start to a new academic year with new ideas.

Sightbox in Tanzania

Creative Curriculum

Our creative curriculum lies at the heart of the success story, as does the reciprocal value engagement of collaborative partners internationally, in curriculum projects. These are the projects in which our VI young people take active leading roles, where our pupils lead on the ‘reverse inclusion’ projects. If you have any VI young people in your school, let us work together to give your pupils the opportunity to lead their peers and change perceptions on VI abilities. This opportunity frames our creative strengths – see for yourself on Twitter via @StVincentsL12.

Vice Principal Dave Swanston with Sightbox in Ethiopia

International “Trainers of the Trainers”

Since 2015 when the City of Liverpool waved St.Vincent’s off to Ypres commemorating sight loss in the Great War, we have developed projects to connect our local pupils and their strengths with new innovation and as ‘trainers of the trainers’ both nationally and internationally. The range of projects is wide, but they focus on conceptualising and designing access to sports and education resources shared internationally.

The key to this innovation is the Sightbox. And “internationally” means just that: With over 20 countries so far including those noted above we have also welcomed VI young people and their teachers from Indonesia and Sierra Leone to come and learn our best practice. It is something we intend to repeat in Summer 2021 by running a VI Games – would you like to get involved?

Sightbox ambassador Angela Williams sharing Sightbox in Gambia

Rotary and Lions

This work has been magnificently supported by both Rotary International and Lions Clubs as we connect and share our best practices out of Liverpool with VI communities globally. The range and scope of our connected and focussed projects are shared on www.stvin.com. 

Sharing the creative curriculum and Sightbox at the Palace of Westminster

Journey for Peace: A collaborative project

A project illustrating our vision and curriculum is ‘Journey for Peace’. Liverpool Heartbeat, Merseyside Police and St. Vincent’s worked on seven themes, presented in free, downloadable comics celebrated through iconic Liverpool statues. It has been used effectively during ‘lockdown’ as a complete project. The Key themes in the comics are health, happiness, wisdom, peace, friendship, bravery and justice. The comics open the doors for VI awareness and discussions around the key themes. Lesson ideas are included for you on www.stvin.com. ‘Journey for Peace’ started with a reading by Joe in New York at the LIONS UN Day, and can be seen here:

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Here’s all the information you need to get involved: https://www.stvin.com/journey-for-peace-2020for2030. Alternatively, please contact St.Vincent’s on office@stvin.com, or telephone 0151 228 9968.

From 20 March, the school physically closed, but the community’s love for learning continued digitally. Since then, King’s Leadership Academy has delivered over 20,000 hours of synchronous lessons weekly, despite the fact that no pupils or staff have been able to enter the building.

Implementing online learning

Synchronous learning is online or distance education that happens in real time, whereas asynchronous learning occurs through online channels without real-time interaction. We researched using both of these methods but decided that due to synchronous learning’s potential to offer live feedback it would work best for to support children struggling with the work, and help maintain positive relationships with our teaching staff.

Our teachers adopted Zoom as a means to deliver face-to-face lessons. It offers a wealth of tools, such as ‘hands-up’ so pupils can participate in questioning and discussion or ‘yes/no’ polls to establish pupil opinion or understanding, these in particular have been great in helping deliver lessons. 

Alongside this we also used other resources such as videos, slides and quizzes as we would in school on the whiteboard to help replicate the traditional classroom setting. This has helped our students to apply knowledge to a number of problem-solving situations and take part in interactive assessment challenges which provide immediate formative feedback to support teachers.

Supporting our teachers work 

When migrating to remote teaching we soon realised that exercise books would not be feasible for either teachers or students. Instead we opted to use Google Docs as electronic pupil workbooks. This has been a revelation, which will continue as we return to school and develop our ‘new normal’. 

Google Docs allow teachers to review students’ work as they are editing it, assess their thinking and address any gaps in understanding. This saves a significant amount of time in the feedback process. It’s also a lot easier for our teachers who can review and work across several student books’ asking interactive questions and providing support. 

Maintaining student well-being

Focusing on the academic systems is one task, but as an Academy we wanted to provide the same level of pastoral care and support for children at home during school closures. As a result our pastoral staff developed a ‘command centre’ which uses a range of digital trackers and management software such as Bromcom to track student absences. 

Digital tracking enabled us to train and redeploy office staff from the front of house to assist with sophisticated attendance tracking, freeing pastoral leaders to focus on safeguarding, student well-being and supporting key workers. As a result, the Academy tracks the attendance of every child across 6 periods per day, continues with online assemblies to aid well-being and a number of digital workshops to ensure children still receive the support they have come to expect physically when on site. 

School in September

We are eager to see our students and work with them again, so everyone is looking forward to the physical return to school. We don’t know what the next few months will hold though, self-isolation and shielding has become part of our new normal, so remote or blended learning has to too. 

We’re determined that no child is left behind during the pandemic and will remain dedicated to this mission in September. We are planning for a hybrid of physical and remote learning in response to the changing threats presented by the virus. The last few months have certainly been ‘unprecedented’ and the unfamiliar territory looks set to continue. But having said that, this also presents an opportunity to create a ‘new normal’ that responds to the development of technology in our society and uses it to create successful citizens in a modern world. 

To access the free support and training from the Department for Education and get set up on a digital education platform visit: The Key. The Government is also funding training and peer-to-peer support from demonstrator schools, who are already leading the way in using digital education platforms. Schools can find out more about this free support here.

Teachers up and down the country have done amazing work helping their pupils to continue to learn from home. They’ve given lessons in their back gardens and kitchens, written songs and conducted science experiments, and even cycled hundreds of miles each week to visit their pupils and deliver lunches! 

However, whilst greater connectivity brings all sorts of benefits to children, it also brings with it greater risks.. Some children find it hard to put their screens down: 45% of children who own a device take it to bed with them! Along with possible disturbances to sleep or mental wellbeing, there’s always the worry that children might be interacting with harmful content or people, or seeing something not designed for their age range.. 

Young people are certainly aware of the potential pitfalls of their devices – according to a report by the Cybersmile Foundation, 35% of young people feel that the internet and social media is having a negative impact on their health. However, around 33% also feel that their parents and teachers wouldn’t be able to help if they came to them with a problem. 

With this in mind, it’s a relief to know that the UK curriculum is being adjusted and refined to reflect our increasingly online world, with a much-needed emphasis on online safety. However, it’s difficult for teachers to cover such a complex topic by simply talking at the front of a classroom. We need to make sure schools are properly equipped to provide pupils with the skills they need to thrive online, and that children feel more comfortable talking to the trusted adults in their lives. 

This is why I decided to create Natterhub: a gated social media platform designed to teach children about online safety in an interactive, experiential way. Providing children with a space in which they can better understand their own emotional state, and their relationships with the people around them, will make them more resilient and empathetic – both online and offline. Showing them concrete examples of the internet in action, with examples of both appropriate and inappropriate behaviour, will make them more digitally savvy. As Professor John Hattie, a leader in the field of metacognition, puts it: “We need to develop an awareness of what we are doing, where we are going, and how are we going there.” 

As a teacher, I fervently believe in mimicry as a compelling route for learning, and that social media and its powerful potential needs to be explicitly modelled to avoid the pitfalls. When we give pupils real reasons to learn and opportunities that relate most closely with real life experiences, pupils will reflect on their own behaviour, resulting in learning that is deeper and more impactful. 

Imagine the excitement when, last year, we ventured up to Sheffield to chat our idea through with Twinkl. We share their mission to ‘help those who teach’ and at Natterhub, we are dedicated to ‘help those who learn’. With over twenty years of school/business experience, and four children between us, Manjit and I continue to share our commitment to supporting children with crucial online life skills which will support them during, and for years beyond, school. Natterhub is now powered by TwinklHive. We launched two months ago, and with over 1000 users in over 30 countries, Natterhub’s voice is starting to be heard! Online safety issues transcend borders or socio-economic boundaries, and social networks use a universal language. With Twinkl’s support, we look forward to scaling Natterhub as it is relevant to all school curricula, anywhere in the world. 

The world has changed as a result of the pandemic. Now more than ever we depend on screens as a means to conduct both personal and professional relationships, and the genre of social media, digital communication and intelligence needs a greater profile in our children’s school life. Natterhub enables teachers to seamlessly weave both knowledge and application into classroom practice. We’ve recently been described as a ‘zeitgeist product’, and we are thrilled that Natterhub is empowering children to thrive online.

Teachers up and down the country have done amazing work helping their pupils to continue to learn from home. They’ve given lessons in their back gardens and kitchens, written songs and conducted science experiments, and even cycled hundreds of miles each week to visit their pupils and deliver lunches! 

However, whilst greater connectivity brings all sorts of benefits to children, it also brings with it greater risks.. Some children find it hard to put their screens down: 45% of children who own a device take it to bed with them! Along with possible disturbances to sleep or mental wellbeing, there’s always the worry that children might be interacting with harmful content or people, or seeing something not designed for their age range.. 

Young people are certainly aware of the potential pitfalls of their devices – according to a report by the Cybersmile Foundation, 35% of young people feel that the internet and social media is having a negative impact on their health. However, around 33% also feel that their parents and teachers wouldn’t be able to help if they came to them with a problem. 

With this in mind, it’s a relief to know that the UK curriculum is being adjusted and refined to reflect our increasingly online world, with a much-needed emphasis on online safety. However, it’s difficult for teachers to cover such a complex topic by simply talking at the front of a classroom. We need to make sure schools are properly equipped to provide pupils with the skills they need to thrive online, and that children feel more comfortable talking to the trusted adults in their lives. 

This is why I decided to create Natterhub: a gated social media platform designed to teach children about online safety in an interactive, experiential way. Providing children with a space in which they can better understand their own emotional state, and their relationships with the people around them, will make them more resilient and empathetic – both online and offline. Showing them concrete examples of the internet in action, with examples of both appropriate and inappropriate behaviour, will make them more digitally savvy. As Professor John Hattie, a leader in the field of metacognition, puts it: “We need to develop an awareness of what we are doing, where we are going, and how are we going there.” 

As a teacher, I fervently believe in mimicry as a compelling route for learning, and that social media and its powerful potential needs to be explicitly modelled to avoid the pitfalls. When we give pupils real reasons to learn and opportunities that relate most closely with real life experiences, pupils will reflect on their own behaviour, resulting in learning that is deeper and more impactful. 

Imagine the excitement when, last year, we ventured up to Sheffield to chat our idea through with Twinkl. We share their mission to ‘help those who teach’ and at Natterhub, we are dedicated to ‘help those who learn’. With over twenty years of school/business experience, and four children between us, Manjit and I continue to share our commitment to supporting children with crucial online life skills which will support them during, and for years beyond, school. Natterhub is now powered by TwinklHive. We launched two months ago, and with over 1000 users in over 30 countries, Natterhub’s voice is starting to be heard! Online safety issues transcend borders or socio-economic boundaries, and social networks use a universal language. With Twinkl’s support, we look forward to scaling Natterhub as it is relevant to all school curricula, anywhere in the world. 

The world has changed as a result of the pandemic. Now more than ever we depend on screens as a means to conduct both personal and professional relationships, and the genre of social media, digital communication and intelligence needs a greater profile in our children’s school life. Natterhub enables teachers to seamlessly weave both knowledge and application into classroom practice. We’ve recently been described as a ‘zeitgeist product’, and we are thrilled that Natterhub is empowering children to thrive online.

According to a YouGov poll, only 9% of Britons want life to return to ‘normal’ once lockdown is over. So clearly there are aspects of lockdown which work better for Britons. An important exercise will be to take a look back and to focus on what aspects of lockdown life they want to keep, what they could do without, and to use what they have learnt to improve their day to day lives. Virtual learning is no different, and a rising trend of edtech tools being used during lockdown should find a permanent place in the future normality of everyday learning. 

At SAM Labs the unique value of its STEM and Coding products is in the physical, hands-on aspect of learning which engages students in a way that traditional classroom learning is limited. So when students were unable to take their classroom kits home, we had to consider how we would support learner continuity in the education industry, not just through a lack of physical tools, but by encouraging the right philosophy to foster learning practices that students can use in their future careers. 

Inquiry based learning in STEM and coding

Inquiry based learning in science and technology is fueled by a thirst for knowledge, and a desire to investigate the origins of things, whether it’s how a plane stays in the air so long, or how data is transferred from one end of the world to the other. Children have boundless levels of curiosity about the world around them, and ensuring they are provided a space at home to fulfill their curiosity that’s structured, like they have at school, is fundamental to inquiry based learning. 

Where opportunities for students to work with their peers were lacking at home, SAM Labs felt that a bit of healthy competition could provide a structured setting to challenge their learning, as well as develop long term soft skills, like collaboration, critical thinking and leadership.

Competitions to facilitate learning

Competitions set rules, boundaries and structure to learning in the same way as preparing for school exams, whether it’s for students just getting started in STEM and coding, or those further along and can use it as a skill-building opportunity. 

That’s why SAM Labs launched the Global Creators Competition. The competition was held virtually, meaning students were able to submit their designs and projects online. To ensure students were not limited by their home school environment, they were given the option of submitting their entry in one of two formats: one which required a STEAM or coding kit, and one that did not. Each had to be relevant to the theme of COVID-19. Students could use household materials and be creative while competitive. The fact that they could apply their personal strengths, whether mathematical, communicative or creative, incentivised more students to submit an entry. Moreover, with a deadline for completion and an understanding of the examination criteria, they were given the boundaries and structure to complete their projects and to overcome the drawbacks of submitting their entries virtually.

The competition organisers had the pleasure of deliberating over some remarkable competition entries from 13 countries participating across the globe, including the UK. You can check out the competition video entries below:

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Summer Camps create new learning opportunities

Summer camps are hugely popular in the UK and the US because they help children grow to be more independent, build character and try new things, all within a structured environment supervised by parents and educators. Like competitions, there is no denying that allowing students to collaborate, and interact with one another in person, is an integral part of the experience. But continued school closures doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from camp activities that can be conducted virtually. 

SAM Labs Virtual Summer Camps, starting this July 2020, will aim to teach students the fundamentals of computing systems through camp-themed lessons. Here are some example activities, you probably didn’t think were possible online: 

• Virtual bonfire to roast marshmallows
• Interactive scary campfire stories
• Solar oven for your favorite camp food
• Camping tent to withstand extreme weather conditions
• Virtual compass rose

Each camp-themed lesson gets students to analyze patterns and algorithms, develop systems with sequences and simple loops, and use their computational thinking skills to evaluate the functionality of their systems. 

What does the future of edtech hold?

It’s funny how a couple of months can change the course of everyday life. Indeed edtech has been sharply on the rise over the last few years, but the embracing of technology during school closures, and indeed office closures, has demystified the limitations about productivity at home and forced technophobes to adapt or as a consequence, fall behind. Edtech tools and resources will need to be more versatile and flexible to a changing learning environment, whether it’s in the classroom, at home, or a mixture of the two. With this evolution, the education industry must consider the importance of learner equity and affordability of edtech tools, in order to give everybody fair access to a changing learning landscape. 

About SAM Labs

SAM Labs is an edtech company with the vision to inspire a generation of problem solvers and has empowered 1,000,000+ students over 5,000 schools globally.

SAM Labs offers innovative courses to teach STEAM and coding with confidence. Our easy-to-use solutions, developed for specialist and generalist teachers alike, enable students to conduct experiments, solve problems and design prototypes. Our kits include practical curriculum-aligned courses, Bluetooth connected hardware blocks and interactive software – ready-made to master computational thinking.

Wellbeing in school is a collective responsibility. In school, anyone can be a wellbeing leader; the cleaner or the head, the teaching assistants or the office manager, the teachers or the site manager. We are all impacted, positively or otherwise, by the words, thoughts and deeds of each other. In other words, the culture of and the relationships in the school determine the level of wellbeing of the staff. Good wellbeing management addresses negative occurrences within our workplace; proactive wellbeing leadership aims at ensuring they never happen. When the pressures come from outside the workplace, other considerations need to be borne in mind. As school leaders we need to be aware of the impact of external factors on the wellbeing of our colleagues. Such factors can tip the wellbeing balance in any workplace, which we need to be especially aware of in supporting our staff during this phase of the pandemic crisis. 

Schools have never closed and teachers have never stopped teaching since the 18th March announcement by the Secretary of State. Our teachers have carried on working on distanced or remote learning, many have supported the children of key workers on the school premises through the holidays but at the same time will have had to deal with levels of anxiety linked to fears for their own health and that of their loved ones. In short, a new style of working and a different range of stresses have been part of the working life of teachers over the last three months. The stress of dealing with negative coverage is not something we wish to see our colleagues additionally burdened with.

There are a few simple steps that teachers can follow to minimise the effect of media interest on their mental wellbeing. 

• Minimising the amount of daily news coverage which we are exposed to. One news programme a day will suffice. Learn to recognise what is factual and what is opinion, what is real and what is rumour. 
• Avoid purchasing the newspapers and, more importantly, consider removing news apps from phones and other devices.
• On social media, muting certain words / terms will prevent posts with these terms appearing on timelines and feeds.
• Consider muting or blocking content and individual users, particularly online versions of newspapers who often automatically share the same content several times a day.

More specifically, school leaders can consider the following to support their staff.

• Ensure that staff newsletters and the staff chat group on WhatsApp doesn’t share upsetting storylines. Manage and challenge the content shared.
• Actively promote the above strategies for social media yourself and model this for younger and more vulnerable colleagues.
• Keep sharing positive messages from parents and children widely with your colleagues. There are very few parents who are dissatisfied with their children’s schools during the COVID-19 situation. 
• Ensure a proactively positive approach in all communication with staff, what a great job they are doing and how much they and their efforts are appreciated. Genuine thanks, from the heart, actually go a long way when we are all under pressure. 

The coronavirus crisis won’t last forever but it will change our lives and work patterns for a considerable period. By actively promoting positive practices and burying negativity, we can go a long way to protecting wellbeing in school and ensuring that it can remain strong and consistent.  

Firstly, I think it is important to recognise that this is what we do every day. Teachers spend their days working with children who are weeks, months or years behind all the time. Working with a whole class who are mostly behind might actually make life easier. It might seem daunting right now but it’s really not going to leave a massive footprint for years to come, especially in primary school. We’ve got the time and the freedom to put the pieces back together!

There has been a lot of talk about children’s wellbeing throughout this time. Having spoken to my families every week since school ‘closed’, I know that many of them are not leaving their flats and are finding life particularly challenging. But on the other hand, I know that there are families who have been able to make the most of their time together by getting outside and keeping their brains ticking along with home learning. Because of this gap, we will need to ensure a smooth start to school in September. There’ll be some who say that children would benefit from a soft approach to ease them in. To be honest, I know my pupils will benefit most from structure, routine and rules. I am not saying rock up with a scowl and get shouty on day one but I know that our children feel safest when they know what to expect. Rules, routine and structure will make them feel secure and is a culture conducive to learning. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there’ll be a few more chats than normal and they’ll need to be reminded how to socialise and play together but ultimately getting back to normal will make people feel normal.  

Without sounding like too much of a Negative Nelly, I will be writing off anything that was set for home learning during the corona pandemic. We cannot tick those boxes as taught objectives. A brief period of informal assessment is all that you need to ascertain where your class is, as well as a good chat with their old teacher. To be clear, I am not saying chuck tests at them left, right and centre. Any good teacher can assess their class by planning effective activities, talking to them and watching them work. To be honest, it’s not dissimilar to normal practice at the start of the year! They just won’t be as far along as normal… and they may have forgotten where the toilets are or what time lunch is. 

So where do we go once we’ve assessed our classes? The primary curriculum is a beast and is jam-packed with objectives. There are a few ways we can go about this: 

1. Shift the curriculum along by one term

2. Forget about the foundation subjects from the summer term and squeeze in the last year’s maths and English objectives

3. Shorten the blocks of history, geography and science to cover what was missed and squeeze in some more maths and English

I have done a lot of thinking and talking about this in the last few weeks and I know that what we do won’t be perfect but it will be best for our pupils and our staff in our situation. While it might make sense to just shift the curriculum along by a term, it will end with everyone being a term behind and our Year 6 teachers may never forgive us! You will need to decide what to prioritise – it can’t be everything. Which gaps are you comfortable letting go? Can they get by without learning about the Stone Age? Do they need to finish that unit on animals including humans? 

We will be treating the subjects differently; you cannot have a blanket approach for everything. In maths, our teachers will prioritise numbers. Fortunately, most of this was taught pre-covid but there will be aspects that have been forgotten. We’ll add in extra maths lessons in the afternoons where we need to and we will cover shape, position and direction etc. later on in the year, dipping back into last year’s objectives to scoop up what was missed. I can’t think of a year where I haven’t had to do this anyway! Reading will be easier to tackle, especially further up the school. We can continue to develop their language, decoding and comprehension skills in our daily reading lessons. We’ll have a huge phonics push in KS1 and ensure Year 3 have appropriate interventions taught by their teachers. Our humanities and science units from the summer term will not be taught because there simply isn’t time to do it all well. 

It isn’t rocket science, but it does take some thinking and deciding! You know your children so you need to make sure you are doing what is right for them.  

There may be many who have spent lockdown in difficult situations without being able to access the much-needed support they would normally have in school or within their local community. It is therefore more important than ever that tools, resources and strategies are in place and offered to all students as this will ensure their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing at this time and during the following months.  

The strategies mentioned below are intended to provide a whole school approach towards LGBTQ+ inclusion so that all teachers and students can support each other, especially as allies are also an important part of the LGBTQ+ experience. 

Kindness: Acknowledging the kindnesses given and received will encourage more in our lives. This is important for LGBTQ+ students to accept that kindness exists around and towards them no matter who they are and even better for exactly who they are. 

Knowing themselves and what they need: This is an extension of kindness where the individual can ensure they are protecting themselves through acceptance and understanding. This comes from self-awareness and knowing which people and situations are positive for them, which aren’t and how to access support and engage the strategies they need in those moments. 

Resilience: This is key for everyone and building emotional resilience can be encouraged and supported throughout the whole school community with teachers modelling what this looks like and how they practice it. 

Notice the breath: Our breath always takes us to the present moment and this can be used on its own or with other practices. We are able to see ourselves in that breath and who we are, notice it, accept it and move to the next moment. If more is needed then it can lead into STOP. 

S = Stop: whatever you’re doing, just pause 

T = Take a breath and follow it coming in and going out. If it helps, say ‘in’ as you’re breathing in and ‘out’ as you let it go.

O = Observe your thoughts, feelings and emotions. Name them if that will help and observe how the body feels. 

P = Proceed mindfully. Is there something you need to move into the next moment? Can a chat with a friend help? Do you need a drink of water? Will fresh air help? 

Develop and use self-soothing techniques: These can be external or internal ones which can help in the moment to create space at the same time as offering comfort and support to the individual. Maybe stroking the arm before going into a particular area of the school may help, giving oneself a hug at certain points of the day or simply speaking kindly and positively to yourself throughout the day. 

All of the above strategies of using Mindfulness and Compassion in general throughout schools, as well as specifically with LGBTQ+ students, bring many benefits to all involved. Here are a few: 

• Improved levels of self-esteem and self-worth
• Kinder and more positive atmosphere around and within the school community
• Improved performance levels through students being able to be their true selves
• Better behaviour and more positive interactions 
• Reduced levels of bullying especially Homophobic, Bi-phobic and Trans-phobic (HBT) 

The adoption of technology to solve problems caused by social distancing and lockdown measures has been interesting to witness. During a roundtable with a number of heads, where we discussed transition, the issue of connecting with parents of Year 6 children was raised. 

Parents worry a great deal about their children, particularly when they are all facing the unknown, and there were a variety of suggestions made about overcoming this. One head suggested holding a parent forum on Zoom. This initially raised eyebrows, as there had been a widely reported pornographic Coom bombing of a teacher-led meeting. But, when the set-up was explained, it made perfect sense and was something that heads were keen to try with various groups of parents.

Over the next few weeks, several members of the roundtable used Zoom to connect with different groups of parents, reporting some real successes. They have been key in breaking down barriers, particularly with parents who have had bad school experiences. However, there are some key things to bear in mind before setting these up for your school.

The successes have been had because they were not formal events. In the words of one head “Step off your pedestal and don’t think that you are better than them. You’re not.” In other words, relax, step away from the office and be a human being.

Although school communities are all different, be direct, no-frills. Many parents don’t understand the messages that are sent out by government, LAs and other authorities, so trust can be in low supply. You can’t overshare the honesty in your information. Whatever you are planning, let them know, let them see what you are doing. Be an authentic and open person who is doing their best for the community that they serve. They will come to trust you. 

The forums worked well because there was no agenda set by the school. When you set the agenda, it is yours. It doesn’t deal with their issues, just the issues that you believe they have. If you set the agenda you will drive participation down. Instead, set the agenda at the first meeting, use it to touch base and find out what their concerns are, let them lead the agenda and identify future topics.

If you can’t answer questions immediately, follow-up with the answer at the next session. These small steps will develop lasting relationships between you and your school community. They key is make them feel listened to, but most importantly, you want to make them fun – play bingo for small prizes (you can drop bingo cards through letterboxes or email out the numbers) for example, or have a quiz. 

Invite the most challenging voices to join you, but keep the numbers small. I know some of you will have participated in huge Zoom meetings where it is impossible to keep everyone on the screen. These become impersonal. If numbers creep up towards 20 or more then split the group into two. You want to make your school human, not a faceless institution. 

Whoever you zoom, make it a connection with your school community. You need them as much as they need you.