Learning During The Lockdown: Real-Time Data On Children’s Experiences During Home Learning

This report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) presents initial evidence on how children are spending their time during the lockdown, with a focus on home learning activities and the home learning resources available in different families.

School closures have presented a huge challenge to both children and their parents. They are also a big concern for policymakers for many reasons, not least because months out of school risk setting back children’s learning and development. This is particularly concerning for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, who already achieve less well on average than their better-off classmates.

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      string(308) "... tracing App by the UK Government will depend on the willingness of the British people to adapt quickly to new norms in an extraordinary post-lockdown reality. The public will need to commit to a new social contract with its government, one that accepts that some infringements on privacy are ..."
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      string(5508) "The UK Government should extend its Five Pillar Testing Strategy to a Six Pillar Testing and Tracing Strategy by introducing digital contact tracing as a Sixth Pillar. A Testing and Tracing Strategy should bring together expertise from the Department of Health, NHSX, NHS Digital, Police, Military and the Intelligence Agencies, to create a new independent national 24/7 Testing and Tracing Command Centre.The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has exposed the limitations of traditional manual contact tracing methodologies, a fact that leaders of some Asian economies (e.g. China, South Korea and Singapore) had already understood following their handling of previous pandemics.When considering the measures needed to counter the further spread of COVID-19 once isolation measures have been relaxed, there is a strong body of evidence emerging from around the world that supports the use of digital contact tracing methodologies alongside a comprehensive mass testing regime.Recent research by Oxford University concludes that a contact-tracing App which builds memory of proximity, contacts and immediately notifies contacts of positive cases, can achieve epidemic control if used by enough people and that epidemics could be contained without need for mass quarantines (‘lock-downs’) that are harmful to society.Research shows that the use of mobile phone data can offer a ‘critical contribution to four broad areas of investigations: Situational awareness (trends and geographical distribution), Cause and effect (identifying key drivers and consequences of implementing different measures to contain the spread of COVID-19), Prediction (to enable new predictive capabilities and allow stakeholders to assess future risks, needs and opportunities), Impact assessment(to identify obstacles hampering the achievement of certain objectives or the success of particular interventions).The successful implementation of a “privacy-friendly” digital contact-tracing App by the UK Government will depend on the willingness of the British people to adapt quickly to new norms in an extraordinary post-lockdown reality. The public will need to commit to a new social contract with its government, one that accepts that some infringements on privacy are a necessary prerequisite for restoring and maintaining wider freedoms.Whilst a high percentage of the UK population are regular users of digital technology, including smartphones, the Government will need to address some skills gaps (for instance, amongst some older people) in order to achieve a high level of subscription to a voluntary smartphone App.Policy Recommendations: The UK Government should extend its Five Pillar Testing Strategy to a Six Pillar Testing and Tracing Strategy by introducing digital contact tracing as a Sixth Pillar. A Testing and Tracing Strategy should bring together expertise from the Department of Health, NHSX, NHS Digital, Police, Military and the Intelligence Agencies, to create a new independent national 24/7 Testing and Tracing Command Centre responsible for:analysis of the spread of the coronavirus across the country through use of testing results and advanced contact tracing using digital technologies using the analysis to enforce self-isolation / social distancing in outbreak hotspots in fast time to suppress / extinguish the virus from the country.communicating to the public key messages in relation to the counter COVID-19 strategy (in place of the current Government daily briefings).The Testing and Tracing Command Centre should accelerate the development of digital solutions and urgently launch a national voluntary App to significantly improve ‘contact tracing’ of those infected with coronavirus. Digital solutions should protect privacy whilst achieving the purpose of obtaining tracing data that can be acted upon. • The Testing and Tracing Command Centre should accelerate the development of digital solutions and urgently launch a national voluntary App to significantly improve ‘contact tracing’ of those infected with coronavirus. Digital solutions should protect privacy whilst achieving the purpose of obtaining tracing data that can be acted upon. • The Government should appoint a single operational lead for the Testing and Tracing Command Centre, experienced in national Command, Control, Co-ordination and Communication (often referred to as C4). • The Government should legislate to regulate how the data from a Testing and Tracing Command Centre is acquired, stored, analysed and used, introducing necessary ethical and privacy safeguards and for a time limited (renewable) period. • The Government should make a national appeal (via a national advertising campaign) to the UK population to subscribe to the voluntary App explaining that the public will need to forfeit some privacy for freedom and liberty in order to defeat the pandemic. Role models and internet influencers should be used to encourage take up of the App, distinguishing it from other Apps currently being circulated and used. • The  Government  should  give  consideration  to  active  steps,  including public debate, that can be taken to enhance the technological skills (e.g. use of smartphone Apps) of some people who are not currently skilled, including some older people, in order to increase levels of compliance with use of a voluntary digital App when it is introduced. This could be achieved by enlisting the support of NHS volunteer responders.Link: Exiting Lockdown"
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Leadership

Exiting Lockdown

21 Apr 2020

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      string(3343) "decision of the EU funded European Schools in Brussels whose 13000 pupils aged 4-18, mainly children of officials of the European institutions, will remain at home until September. This is partly due to the huge success of delivery e-learning via the Microsoft TEAMS platform; the access of all families to the internet, the cancellation of exams and, above all, the impossibility of assuring virus proof safety and social distancing in schools of 3000+ pupils.The Netherlands is set on a course similar to one the world has seen operating in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, in prioritising the return of primary schools. A large section of the parents and teachers are angrily opposed to this. The Dutch aim to open mainstream and special primary schools for 100% of pupils spending 50% of their in-school time on physical education. Except for vulnerable children and children of essential workers, only half the school roll will be allowed in the school at any one time. The children will remain in fixed cohorts, although adults will be required to maintain a distance of at least 1.5m from each other, this rule will not apply to the children. As in Belgium, detailed planning has been published in the Netherlands for the reopening of its primary schools on 11th May.ImpracticalHowever, a survey of 5,000 teachers by the professional association AOb said many of the ideas were impractical. ‘Schools aren’t designed for people to keep their distance and they see many practical problems such as the need to walk around the class, transportation for children in special education and hygiene measures for the youngest groups in primary school,’ said the organisation. ‘Teaching 30 four-year-olds to sneeze into their elbows and keep away from each other is Utopian, let alone asking the teacher sto keep their distance,’ added Eugenie Stolk, chair of the AOb. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of primary school teachers said they were already having problems keeping to the 1.5 metre rule in classrooms where children of essential workers are being looked after in the daytime.’.The English medium newspaper DutchNews.nl reports that a third of Dutch primary teachers believe it is too risky for primary school children to return to school en masse without clear evidence that young children are not vectors for COVID19 contagion.On 30th April 2020 Unesco, Unicef and the World Food Programme (WFP) released their own guidelines for the “safe reopening of schools amidst ongoing closures affecting nearly 1.3 billion students worldwide.” These guidelines simply sum up the dilemma facing the UK government: return to school and risk a resurgence of COVID19 infection or remain closed and risk the education and economic well-being of the most vulnerable in our societies.“The best interests of children and overall public health considerations – based on an assessment of the associated benefits and risks to education, public health and socio-economic factors – must be central to national and local authorities’ decisions to reopen schools”, the guidelines say.For more practical guidance England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would do better to look to their former EU partners for inspiration. There will be lots of lessons to learn despite our differences.Click here for detailed multinational responses"
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Leadership

Europe Finds Ending School Lockdown Challenging And Divisive

5 May 2020

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      string(3210) "Above:  proposed pop-up classrooms including hand washing facilities (© Darc Studio) London-based architecture studio, Curl la Tourelle Head Architecture (CLTH) has released a new concept to help mitigate restricted circulation routes within schools and maintain the necessary social distancing among pupils and staff when schools reopen. This follows the latest announcement from the UK government on its plans to allow primary schools in England to reopen to select year groups from June.Based on initial research and analysis carried out by the team at CLTH, the concept aims to address the challenges which many schools in the UK and beyond will face when they reopen. This temporary provision will help liberate existing internal school space taking the pupil load off circulation areas, but also enhance air-flow contributing to individuals’ well-being. Above: Curl la Tourelle Head’s proposed pop-up classrooms in a residential street setting (© Darc Studio) The idea sees a series of pop-up, tent-like structures, each of which is arranged to follow the two-metre social distancing rules with the adaptability to host different classroom setups. The architects propose reusing resources such as marquees and portable bathroom facilities from outdoor festivals that would otherwise be dormant during the current pandemic.Where appropriate, renewable energy sources can also be provided on site in the form of PV arrays and solar evacuated tubes for hot water heating. Clockwise movements within and outside the structures will be encouraged, in a similar approach to Buddhist stupas to avoid crossing over between individuals. Above: Social distancing within classroom (© Darc Studio) Simple and adaptable, the concept can be applied to different outdoor settings; from football pitches to pedestrianised areas and neighbouring parks. It also suggests opening up and using public spaces in unconventional ways that might not be thought of previously; for example, maximising the use of closed residential streets and encouraging safe community integration as lockdown eases. Above: Curl la Tourelle Head’s proposed pop-up classrooms in a school field setting (© Curl la Tourelle Head) Wayne Head, Director, CLTH, said, “In contemplating with our children on how schools might return to normal after the lockdown, my partner Marianne Christiansen inspired me to consider outdoor learning, something that schools in Denmark have already adopted for their classes using tent-like structures.“Our education design team, led by my colleague Simon Bumstead, then carried out a series of studies and came up with the idea of transferring a proportion of teaching provision into temporary structures, using large-scale tents typically seen at festivals.“This is by no means our answer to what classrooms should look like in the future. We wanted to use this as a catalyst for further discussions, to rethink how schools can be designed and used beyond COVID-19.” Above: Different classroom setups that allow social distancing among pupils and staff (© Curl la Tourelle Head) A longer version of this story will be appearing on the Learning Spaces arena of TeachingTimes"
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Learning Spaces

Tents Could Be Used to Support Return To School After Lockdown

14 May 2020

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Digital Learning

Digital Fiction In A Dystopian World

16 May 2020