Please find below some using Q&A responses in relation to school recovery and improvement plans for 22-23 session.

 

We recognise that the pandemic has had an impact on all communities. How has the current context of your school/setting changed as a result of COVID-19?

• A great deal of approaches in school were ceased or had to be simplified due to social distancing. We now need to focus on fully restarting/re-engagement of partnerships and across school collaborations and events

 

What specific impact has COVID-19 had on your school/setting?

• It is evident developmentally and in terms of progress of children this has changed prior knowledge and expected levels where children are working from (most specifically in Literacy and Writing is evident through our attainment focus)

 

• Social and emotional wellbeing, relationships and resilience (pupil needs) are areas for continuous support on top of picking up where we left off academically.

 

• Isolation of working practices and collegiate working across our school.

 

How have you adapted to address challenges as a result of the pandemic and what impact are these adaptations having on learners?

• Early intervention approach, elements of targeted support deployment (within capacity and additional staffing capacity), consideration of adjustment of environments and approaches to alternative ways to support learners (partnerships, ICT/technology)

 

• Presently it feels like small pockets of learners may benefit but the demand across the school is on a much larger scale which individual/specific resources won’t stretch across our school. Further considerations regarding these approaches and how we may make best use of limited resources is an ongoing challenge. A review of our ASL/support staffing and how we may best deploy these resources to meet the growing needs in school is ongoing.

 

What have you identified as your improvement priorities and recovery? Why?

• Whole school refresh on the basic fundamental issues at class, stage and whole school as we need to place a revised collective understanding around standards/expectations in our school and re-engage with our school/staff strengths which centres around collaborative practice.
• We must also seek to fully re-engage at a parental, local and partnership level as a lot of these strong links have diluted over time due to social distancing.

 

What approaches or strategies are being developed to support learners to engage confidently and meaningfully in their learning?

• We need to come together collectively to identify an agreed whole Balmedie learning and teaching approach towards what we as a school identify are our ‘gaps’ and ‘challenges’.

 

What approaches are you taking as a school in ensuring wellbeing and how these are meeting the needs of all children?

• A health and wellbeing audit of children needs to be refreshed and a clear focus on Rights Respecting Schools will be the vehicle for improvement in this area (with direct involvement with pupil forum/pupil voice groups in the school).

 

What has been the specific impact of the pandemic on children and young people’s attainment and achievement?

• Increased learning gaps/less continuity and prior knowledge in learning
• Evident gaps in progression
• Specific focus into Literacy (Writing) as the most significant gap (also nationally)

 

What approaches have you used to identify where children and young people have gaps in their learning?

• Whole school audit (Circles resources approach) in identification and approach to supporting needs
• Variety of benchmarking and assessment at classroom/stage level
• SNSA data/other shared data (e.g. Ellon cluster and authority level)

 

What steps are you taking to address these gaps to ensure all learners are making the best possible progress?

• Ongoing tracking and monitoring
• Support planning to prioritise most vulnerable of learners (and alternative support approaches which we are developing through consideration/review of deployment of present staffing resources)

 

What approaches are you using to support educational recovery and increase progress in improving outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty?

• Use of PEF and partnership support (Rapid Relief Team)
• Use of additional staffing budgets to be targeted towards FSM children (where appropriate)

 

 How is any additional funding such as PEF being used to support this?

• Additional funding for Aberlour partnership support
• Additional funding for increased support staffing (where possible/available)
• Additional funding for ASL ICT/resource approaches (ICT refresh programme & SFL chromebook resource provision for identified P4-P7 children)
• Additional funding for poverty proofing (targeted costs for families)