It has been clear during the last few months that a global health crisis accentuates the huge divisions in society. As well as the alarming number of deaths from Covid-19 there are a vast number of side-effects prevalent among the most disadvantaged in our societies. Professor Becky Francis, the EEF’s chief executive states, ‘The combination of economic hardship and school closures caused by this pandemic will have a potentially devastating impact on the poorest children and young people in our society. It’s vital, then, that we do all we can to alleviate this impact.’
In The Sutton Trust’s Social Mobility and COVID-19 report, key points are made for the early years – the main one being that having providers temporarily closed is likely to have the biggest impact on disadvantaged communities. It notes: ‘Making sure parents from all backgrounds have the right support, which is helpful but not prescriptive (given the challenges many families are facing during this time), could help to reduce the impact of differences in the home learning environment between children from different backgrounds.’
As well as the impact on disadvantaged children there is an additional risk to vulnerable children. Covid-19 is putting parents under considerable stress which may result in further incidents of child abuse. Research suggests that children under five are more vulnerable than any other age group in the school system. Children with special educational needs and disabilities are also more susceptible to abuse, according to a review of the research by the NSPCC in ‘We have the right to be safe’ – Protecting disabled children from abuse.
It is clear, then, that those working in the early years are in a critical position in providing the extra support needed to families who may be in difficulty. Outlined here are some of the cautions taken by three London nurseries:
RAPID ADJUSTMENTS
Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre, Newham, east London
Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre has been making rapid adjustments to support the significant number of families confronted with additional difficulties. In Newham, there are more homeless children and children in temporary accommodation than the whole of the North of England. This means that many children and families depend on consistent support from their nurseries at the best of times, let alone during most extraordinary times.
Head teacher Julian Grenier emphasises the pressing need of keeping in contact with the families. ‘Overall, our commitment during any closure is to stay in touch with everyone, every day,’ he says. ‘We work with the rest of the team in Newham to provide speedy help for any family that has run out of money or food and work tirelessly to prevent families from destitution.’
As in any maintained school, the most vulnerable children at Sheringham are able to access daily provision (including during the Easter holidays), staffed on a voluntary rota system. For the majority of children who are at home, Sheringham has provided free access to the EasyPeasy app which gives parents ideas for play-based learning at home.
Messages which are broadcast on WhatsApp also link parents to the Boromi daily play newsletter and resources from www.lovemybooks.co.uk to encourage shared reading at home. Sheringham, too, recommends apps and other resources listed on the DFE’s Hungry Little Minds website.
Sheringham has a large number of children with a high level of special educational need. The nursery school’s SENCO, Tania Chouhdury, touches base regularly by phone to check how the family are and offer advice. Tania has also created emergency resource packs for them to have at home.
The Children’s Centre at Sheringham is distributing electronic vouchers for the local food bank and providing nappies and other baby essentials to parents who are in most need. Some families get help from a social worker because their child needs protection or is a child in need. Other families get early help from the Children’s Centre in the following ways:
- The children’s centre family support worker checks in with them on a regular basis
- Family support workers share advice on how to manage parenting difficulties. This is based on ‘tipsheets’ from the evidence-based Triple P: Positive Parenting Programme.
- Parents are given a list of useful contacts including services fro parents with mental health difficulties, domestic violence support services and 24-hour helplines for parents under severe stress.
The safeguarding team meets online regularly, and staff have a clear briefing on how to be alerted to and pass on any safeguarding concerns. Sheringham also shares information with all parents about what they should do if they are worried a child is being harmed.
Julian comments, ‘We have worked closely with many isolated parents, so now they know at least one or two other people who live locally. We are confident that our community will pull together and get through this difficult time. We will be here for them every day.’
CREATING A VIRTUAL SCHOOL
Charles Dickens Primary School, Southward, south London
Charles Dickens Primary School (Southwark) has 70 nursery children on roll with 50 per cent of places for children eligible for the Early Years Pupil Premium. Their response to the Covid-19 closure has been to set up a virtual school. Head teacher Cassie Buchanan, says, ‘It was the most disadvantaged children and families that we had in mind when designing our virtual school.’
The planning of the virtual school started with the assumption that children would not have access to a computer or tablet, so everything is available on a smart phone (Apple and Android). Cassie points out, ‘We thought it important to make everything open access with no log-ins, lots of videos, no separate passwords or unnecessarily clicking or navigating the web - this was to help our parents engage easily and to reduce their stress.’
Cassie and her staff realised that if the virtual school was to work for all families it would need a simple and manageable format – one that would function well across different languages and not impede those with less experience of online or early learning.
Participation across the nursery is about 95 per cent. Staff keep track of who is engaging using Mail Chimp, so that they can contact parents who they have not heard from. This ensures that they maintain a regular connection and are able to offer additional support if necessary.
What, then, does a day of virtual school look like? At 8.00am an email is sent to all parents containing everything needed to support their child’s learning for the day. The room leaders record a video message so that a relationship with the families can be sustained; go through routine tasks that would usually be done in the nursery (like the date and the weather) in order to connect the children with familiar experiences; and, most critically, try to make the families feel that they are part of something, and not alone during these most isolating of times.
‘In terms of the EYFS curriculum, we settled on a consistent format with short videos modelling practical activities with a clear learning focus. We wanted parents to be able to easily see the value of these times with their child and the curriculum progression from one day to another,’ explains Cassie.
The maths curriculum, for example, includes activities such as playing ‘ten in the bed’ using teddies or whatever is available in the home. Song and rhyme feature heavily, as do domestic experiences that involve maths. The activities are modelled on video with the practitioner talking to the child and walking them through the activity as if they were with them. From this, too, the parents can build up their confidence in what they can do as well as be realistic about expectations of their child.
Cassie continues, ‘To support two-way communication parents can email a dedicated new email address, and the nursery team take it in turns to respond and encourage parents, giving them small extra things to try if requested, nudging further engagement, reassuring them about what is realistic and possible.
‘The success of this virtual school has been nothing but phenomenal – it is used by thousands of children across the UK as well as schools in Kenya, Singapore, New Zealand, the USA, France and Canada.’
FRIENDS IN NEED
Kay Rowe Nursery School and Children's Centre, Newham, east London
Kay Rowe Nursery School and Children's Centre, another school with a high proportion of disadvantaged and vulnerable families, is open every day from 8.30am to 4.30pm, including holidays. Head teacher Sarah Porter says, ‘We have been contacting vulnerable families and families with a child who has additional needs two or three times a week to check how they are, and to see if they have enough food and essentials. We have made up and delivered resource play packs to all families who have children with SEND, and also to families where we know there aren’t many toys.’
At Kay Rowe, some families have been confronted with yet further difficulties as a result of covid-19 crisis, in particular families:
- where paid work has been lost (and who were struggling financially anyway)
- with no recourse to public funds
- with no English and literacy skills – this makes getting help from charities and the Local Authority difficult
- with long-term health problems
The staff at Kay Rowe, who speak a vast number of languages between them, have been able to support the parents who do not speak English and do not know how to access help. They have also been able to explain the Government’s advice about the pandemic where needed.
‘For 20 of our families, the Nursery and Children’s Centre is their only place of support, so we now provide weekly food parcels using the nursery’s supplies of pasta, rice, etc. We deliver these, or they pick them up if they can. This has also been a great way of ensuring we keep in touch with these families. Any leftover lunches are sent home each day and families are directed to food banks. The local community and parents have also made donations.
‘We are also keeping in touch with mothers regularly where we know domestic violence has been an issue.’
In terms of activities for children at home, ideas that do not cost anything and are easy to do in the home are posted online. This includes the learning journal or Tapestry: videos are made for the children by their keyworker and, in return, children post their own videos of what they have been doing at home. This enables interaction to be sustained. Happy birthday videos have been sent to individual children using this. Most families use Tapestry and a member of staff connects with families who are not accessing it to help them set it up and talk them through it.
Sarah concludes, ‘One thing that has really made a huge difference at this time is the commitment of the staff to supporting families.’
