Letter - Children, Education and Home Affairs Panel - Minister for Education re COVID-19 Response - 1 June 2020
This content has been automatically generated from the original PDF and some formatting may have been lost, therefore it should not be relied upon to extract citations or propose amendments. Please see the PDF for the official version of the document.
19-21 Broad Street | St Helier Jersey | JE2 4RR
Deputy Rob Ward
Chairman, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel Scrutiny Office
States Greffe
Morier House
St Helier
JE1 1DD
01 June 2020
Dear Deputy Ward , Supply Teachers
Thank you for your email of 19 May 2020 which posed some additional questions following my Quarterly Hearing with your Panel on 15 May 2020. I trust the answers below provide the information the Panel requires but please do not hesitate to contact me if you require anything further.
What percentage of children identified as living in situations of vulnerability are attending school?
Week commencing
20 April 27 April 4 May 11 May 18 May Attendance rate of vulnerable
children attending school 21% 23% 25% 29% 31% Number of vulnerable children
attending school 82 90 97 113 118
Vulnerable children are defined as those who have an allocated Social Worker. Attendance is defined as having attended for at least 1 session (am or pm) during the week. Data is sourced from schools attendance recording in their management information systems (SIMS).
- What percentage of pupils in Government of Jersey Secondary Schools are accessing online learning, not just logging on'?
Children are doing more than just logging on' to online learning. Learning is being set both in primary and secondary schools and this is being monitored closely by teachers, heads of departments and senior leaders. In secondary schools, the children are mostly accessing online learning without too many difficulties. This learning is set and monitored regularly by the school; although, the nature of the interactions between a teacher and student is different because the learning is remote. Nevertheless, when questioned by the Standards and Achievement Team, all secondary schools were confident about the quality of online learning. There are students in some of our secondary schools who were not able to access online learning because they do not have laptops or other devices; or, the use of a mobile telephone is not as useful because of the size of the screen. Consequently, schools are providing hard' copies that are sent on a weekly basis to up to 280 children, as well as loaning out devices, from schools' stocks or from the Department. With a cohort size of 5,008 students, 94% are regularly accessing online learning and 6% are being provided with hard copy resources.
- How is the quality and consistency of the online/home schooling offer from schools being measured?
Schools are monitoring the quality of learning on a weekly basis. Teachers and senior leaders continue to plan and prepare work as best as they can. Those children who are struggling are receiving additional support from schools. It is difficult to measure' the quality of learning other than through feedback and general interaction with students. Naturally, this is different; although Teams, Google Classrooms and Doddle offers scope for interaction with students. Heads of Departments monitor the quality of learning and discuss with their teams curriculum coverage. The assessment for learning process of questioning and evaluating understanding is far more challenging when done online. Schools are doing the best that they can in such circumstances. All secondary and primary schools are using a small array of platforms: Google Classrooms, Microsoft Teams, Doddle and Jigsaw (primary). In addition, for those students who have limited or no access to online learning schools have sent packs of resources home from the outset and lent school tablets and laptops. To support this further, CYPES has ordered 240 additional laptops to support pupils without access to a device, and worked with the local Telecoms firms to ensure that there is a free broadband offer for families with no connection. (Please note that at the end of this period we will work with schools to dispose of a number of legacy devices, which will be replaced with those purchased this month as asset replacement.)
Yours sincerely,
Senator Tracey Vallois Minister for Education
D +44 (0)1534 448394 E [email protected]