To hear a verbal report on the above titled item.

Clive Haines, Schools Leadership Development Manager, said that schools had remained open throughout lockdown, including school holidays. Schools were only closed if there was no demand. All children in care had been monitored during the period, with a daily recording register showing that 400-450 pupils had been in school, on average. Schools had been phoned to ensure that they were making contact with vulnerable pupils and any issues were raised immediately. There had also been virtual focus meetings with head teachers so that recovery plans and risk assessment could be created.

Clive Haines said that schools felt well supported by the council and that concerns were mostly based around opening up the school to more pupils. However, the willingness of schools to open up further had been encouraging, with 3,000-3,500 pupils now attending. There was also concern that the disadvantage gap would increase due to a lack of teaching over the period, along with the mental health of pupils.

The Chairman passed on his thanks to officers and teachers who had worked extremely hard during tough circumstances. He said that it was important for children to get back to school and catch up on the education that they had missed out on since March. He asked where the council was with planning for September and how best to support schools when they fully reopen.

Clive Haines said that they were still awaiting further guidance from the government on how to reopen safely and once this had been received they would support schools to ensure they were happy. Helen Daniels said that at her school they were using ‘pods’ of 15 pupils but hoped this would be extended to 30 by September. This could mean that children would not need to social distance within the bubble, which would make teaching and classroom activities much easier.

Councillor Del Campo asked about the ‘middle children’ that had been missing a lot of education and what could be done to help them. She also asked if there had been any cases of transmission in schools across the borough.

Clive Haines said that pupils that did not meet the children in care or vulnerable criteria where learning at home. There had been no confirmed cases from schools but there was one incident where symptoms had been reported and the school had been closed so that it could be cleaned, but the school opened like normal the next day.

Helen Daniels said that at Cookham Rise they had contacted families every week and had used a platform called ‘See Saw’ to set work for children to complete at home. They had also been promoting home learning projects which could be completed with their families.

Councillor Coppinger asked how much home learning had been taking place in secondary schools. Clive Haines explained that they had a learning platform that was similar to primary schools and that with the recent return of Year 10 and 12, there was a blended model of learning for these year groups.

Helen Huntley said that they had used Microsoft Teams to teach online lessons to pupils effectively. The school had also delivered home packages to children which included things like learning resources, as not all pupils had access to a tablet or laptop.

Councillor Knowles said that Eton College had opened up its online teaching to all UK schools to take advantage of. He said that while all teachers had been working extremely hard, he had concerns that some may become disillusioned with the profession. He wanted to ensure that wellbeing programmes were in place for staff and asked if there was a way to show appreciation for teachers.

Clive Haines said that there had been regular meetings and calls with staff to make sure that they were okay and resolve any issues that they had. RBWM councillors had sent out a ‘thank you’ to schools recently which had been well received.

Helen Huntley said that they had sent out a document to help with the wellbeing of both staff and pupils.