This blog post was first published by True Education Parternships. You can read it on their website by clicking here.

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Teaching in Year 6 is hectic at the best of times. The school year normally has two distinct phases: one before SATs and one afterwards. The focus is different and the pace of learning has a different feel to it. Well, this year has been a whole other ride!

We started the year with 90 children in three classes taught by 4 teachers. This is an unusual cohort too: we normally have 60 children in two classes. Then Lockdown began and we moved to 90 children learning at home with some visiting us at school as their parents are Key Workers. And then June arrived. Year 6 is now in 6 bubbles, with some children still learning at home, being taught by a team of 20 teachers and TAs.

So, how do you keep learning consistent and coordinated between 20 adults and 90 children spread out over nearly every classroom in the school and some in their own homes? With communication, consistency and hope.

Communication

Once upon a lifetime, I was an Officer in the Royal Navy. If you wanted to wrong foot the enemy the first move was to interrupt their communications. It’s why the Royal Navy still uses lanterns to communicate between ships using Morse code even in the modern era of satellite communications. For myself coordinating the learning 20 members of staff returning to the classroom would be delivering, how we communicated and when was (and still is) vital.

For our return to the classroom that meant getting every piece of information staff recorded in one place and in one easily digested format. We had teachers and TAs who had never worked with Year 6 before who were feeling nervous about teaching a curriculum new to them. We would also have to change how we approached some subjects. For instance, Woodland Schools is normally an adventurous affair, but now we would need to be more risk adverse as delivering First Aid had new complexities.

Emails are great, but are also easy to miss or lose in the flow of daily life. If a message is important put it in a Word document. Whilst an email and a Word document are both just words on a screen, the former catches the reader’s eye more than the later. Human nature is a funny thing at times. You can also store the document centrally for updating rather than sending out information in a slow drip feed of messages.

Speaking with one voice is also vital. I work with three other amazing and experienced teachers in Year 6. That also means there are four places staff can go to for answers. If four people all had the same question they all came to one person, making it easier to spot patterns and react to the needs of the staff quickly.

When we needed to communicate our new rules and routines to children, every bubble used the same presentation and posters.

Consistency

This brings me to me second answer: to give staff confidence, try to keep the messages, planning and learning resources consistent. And with consistency it is the small details that make the big difference. To aid consistency one of the Year 6 teachers acted as our secretary and editor. They filed the planning and resources made by the other Year 6 teachers so they always knew exactly where each item was. They also acted as copy editor ensuring that resources and lesson presentations were laid out in a similar way so staff could navigate them easily.

We have moved from being a teaching team to one setting cover for 16 other members of staff. Small things like using the same PowerPoint design or layout is surprisingly important when a teacher is trying to pick up the teaching of a subject on Thursday that has been taught by another in the first part of the week.

As we returned to “normal” lessons this meant issuing timetables, boxes of resources and coordinating many of the small details that would ordinarily be left to professional judgement. When the mental and emotional load for staff went up, what would normally be seen as micro-management became welcomed support.

Hope

The most important and most mercurial of substances. For the second time in three months we were all leaping into the unknown with minimal guidance from the outside world. “STOP BEING LAZY COWARDS AND GET ON WITH IT” was one line I spotted in a national newspaper, capturing the general feeling towards the teaching profession as we waited to be told to reopen schools. Although many schools – including mine - hadn’t shut since February, staying open throughout the half-terms and Easter break. So, morale and hope was pretty low for many as we began welcoming more children back to the classrooms.

Now more than ever, it was important to thank staff. To celebrate their efforts and recognise that they would be feeling unsure as we returned. Reminding staff that between us we have a few centuries worth of experience to fall back on and an esprit de corps that even Ofsted recognised. Some say thanking people for doing their job is pointless, yet it amazing how great it makes everyone feel.

Hope is found in community. The socially distanced conversations from classroom doors; the giant welcome bunting strung across the front of the school; and the school governors visiting to thank us for our efforts and check if we needed any further resources.

Blowing our bubbles has been an adventure and one we are still learning the lessons from. Have we been successful? Time will tell, but the laughter and smiles around school from staff and children says we may have got it right.