The Little Guide for Parents on Home Schooling During Lockdown & The Motivation Mystery – both pieces by Laura Purser January 2021
Laura Purser, Head of Primary and Early Years ITT,
SEND & Inclusion Lead, Mental Health and WellBeing Support at The University of Buckingham
As the author says in her introduction to this excellent resource guide for parents.
“Knowing how to home school is not something parents are born knowing. Even fully trained teachers and those working directly in education, may find themselves thrown as to how to navigate their way through these circumstances flung upon them. Balancing the emotional turbulence of the pandemic and all that comes with it is enough to throw us off kilter. Add to that the media diet of fear and breaking news, social media notifications and a constant stream of conflicting and ambitious information, it can be a minefield to know what to do for the best”
Hi Barry We wanted to get in touch to offer our support in light of the latest policies and rules around school closures and home-based learning. If you would like any assistance with setting up EfL Parent (Engagement & Empowerment) Tools and/or starting to create and use EfL Activities to support home learning then we are here to help. As ever there are lots of step by step guides and videos available within the EfL Online Resource Centre and we are also available to have a Zoom meeting with you and some of your colleagues to explore these tools further. We're planning an EfL LearningShared Community event that will look at how a number of schools have used the Activity Channel and Library to facilitate home-based learning, both during lockdowns, shielding and in supporting general home-school transitions and learning. More details will follow over the coming days. We've also listed details of some of the other community events and networking/development opportunities that are planned for 2021 at the bottom of this email. EfL Parent (Engagement & Empowerment) Tools EfL Parent (Engagement & Empowerment) tools enable you to quickly and easily share evidence and PDF reports directly with your Learners parents/carers, through a secure web-based parent website that works on PCs, Macs, Chromebooks and all mobile devices (tablets and phones). School can also share Activities (see below) with learners and their families that can be done at home or outside school. Parents/carers are also able to record videos, take photos and collect evidence of learning and good work at home or anywhere else outside of school. Here is a link to the dedicated section within the EfL Online Resource Centre: https://resources.evidenceforlearning.net/category/142-8-parent-engagement The EfL Activity Channel & Activity Kit and The EfL Activity Library The EfL Activity Channel & the EfL Activity Kit, lets teachers, therapists and other authorised staff create rich video-based activities containing written and visual instructions, links to your school’s favourite resources, other web links and downloadable and printable resources. The EfL Activity Library allows you to create, share and swap Activities with other schools via the EfL Activity Library. You and your teachers can browse shared Activities in the Library and import them into your school to adapt and then share with your own learners and their families/carers via the EfL Parent Portal. Here is a link to the dedicated section within the EfL Online Resource Centre: https://resources.evidenceforlearning.net/category/296-the-efl-activity-channel-activity-kit Arrange a Zoom meeting to help you set up and use Parent tools and/or EfL Activities? Please get in touch if you'd like to arrange a Zoom meeting to explore your options and to help you to move forward getting these tools set up. Email us at services@theteachercloud.net and we will be in touch with our availability. As always, please let us know if we can help in anyway. We wish you well during what are once again extremely challenging and uncertain times. Many Thanks, The EfL Team ------------------------------------------------ Upcoming Online EfL Community Events & Working Groups in 2021 Starting in 2021, we are planning a number of meetings and are going to be establishing working groups and interest groups covering a range of areas related to SEND. These include: - Post 16 (11th January 2021. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIqc-6ppj0iEtaIhebD9DIp0K-TtsQbGxex) - Family / Parent Engagement - Developing Mental Well Being - The Engagement Model/Profile - EfL & SEND in Mainstream (inc ARPs/IRs/Specialist Resource Bases/Units) - Remote / Home-based Learning - Curriculum - Multi Agency Approach - SCERTS Please visit the link below to let us know of any topics that would be of interest to you, or if you are interested in connecting with colleagues/schools around specific topics or areas of interest and practice: http://eepurl.com/gjeWvz Please also get in touch if you'd like to suggest a topic or Interest/Working Group, or if you're interested in co-hosting a future meeting. Copyright © 2021 theTeacherCloud Ltd, All rights reserved.
Barry Carpenter Education 