Home learning support highlighted by education watchdogs
EDUCATION watchdogs have praised Inverclyde Council’s approach to supporting pupils, families and staff with learning at home.
A new national report by Education Scotland has highlighted the work done by the local authority to deliver ‘quality’ remote learning.
Following engagement with councils, schools, parents/carers and pupils, inspectors singled out Inverclyde Council for its efforts to ‘improve consistency’ of teaching and for continuing to ‘raise the expectations of all stakeholders’.
There was also praise for the support given to head teachers and wider school staff to deliver home learning, the quality of audit and analysis work to ensure high and consistent standards, the use of live and pre-recorded lessons, and the focus on the health and wellbeing of pupils.
The report, says: “The role of the senior leadership team and education officers has been critical to assure what is happening in schools.
“For example, as a result of all the local authority support and challenge, commitment to live lessons is growing alongside the wealth of lessons that are pre-recorded.
“In addition, senior school leaders are now providing increasingly robust quality assurance of the quality of remote learning in their own schools.”
The national overview report, entitled ‘Local authority approaches to assuring the quality of remote learning’, was published on Friday (26 February) following extensive evaluation throughout January.
Councillor Jim Clocherty, Inverclyde Council’s convener of education and communities, said: “We’ve all had to adapt to the challenges of the pandemic rapidly, arguably none more so than our education and teaching staff.
“Their incredible dedication to the wellbeing of the pupils and families they support and ‘can do’ attitude has ensured a continuation of high-quality learning at home during what has been and continues to be a difficult time for all involved.
“This report delivers some independent and well-deserved praise for the excellent work going on in our education system here in Inverclyde.”
Inspectors highlighted staff for their grasp of home learning early on and connecting with pupils right from the start.
The report says: “Senior education local authority leaders quickly recognised that all staff needed to understand what the remote learning offer was first, in order for this to be quality assured well.
“Local authority officers recognised engagement with learners was the first area they needed to focus on with an emphasis on health and wellbeing.
“To ensure that all staff fully recognise how the local authority will assure the quality of remote learning, regular daily briefings were put in place for headteachers.”
The study was produced to provide a national overview of how remote learning is being delivered in schools across Scotland to find out what is working well, identify challenges and discover what further support is needed to improve home learning further.
The full ‘National overview of practice in remote learning 7: Local authority approaches to assuring the quality of remote learning’ report can be found at: www.education.gov.scot/improvement/supporting-remote-learning/national-overviews/national-overview-of-practice-reports/.