Harnessing Classroom Monitor to bridge the Covid19 gap

For teachers, the current pandemic and associated disruption to education is presenting significant challenges. Everyone is operating in an uncertain environment with no knowledge of when and how schools will return to normal. Teachers are concerned for not only the educational disruption that all our pupils are facing but also for the wider personal challenges that at least some will be dealing with. In helping you to bridge the potential Covid19 learning gaps, Classroom Monitor can be a vital tool.

We would like to share how Classroom Monitor schools are using the assessment platform effectively during the current situation and how this can help prepare for the return to school.

Accurately recording where pupils have got to

If you have not done so already, we would strongly advise you to check your markbooks are an accurate reflection of your assessments prior to school closures. Review your markbooks, alongside any pieces of supporting work to ensure that your recording is as accurate as it can be. This is going to be crucial once we are on the other side, as you will have a good picture of where the gaps exist, allowing you to get straight on with addressing them in order to progress your pupils’ learning.

Using Classroom Monitor to support learning during lock down

If your markbooks provide an accurate reflection of pupils’ learning, then this can be used to support the home learning that is taking place. You will be able to identify the gaps and opportunities for progression that can be supported and addressed well at home. These can inform the resources that are sent but could also be shared with parents so that they know the key things that their children could focus on.

• The Assessment Summaries (v1) & Pupil Reports (v2) could be shared with parents with ideas to support home learning.
• Simply sharing with pupils that any evidence that they submit will be attached to their markbook and considered in their wider learning journey may act as a motivator.

Recording learning during lock down

Even if you can’t effectively assess your pupils, you might want to consider recording some evidence in your markbooks. Many of the resources that you will be using will be National Curriculum aligned, meaning you can continue to record this evidence in your normal assessment framework markbooks:

• For any assessment criteria that you are setting learning activities for, you can select the whole row(s) in your markbook and add an evidence note to remind yourself that you have covered this during lockdown- maybe giving details of the activity and levels of engagement.
• Uploading evidence received from pupils onto your markbooks can be a way to help you monitor who is engaging with the learning, who needs some encouragement and to give you information that can be built on when we return to school as normal.

Our parent company, Juniper Education are producing resources to support home learning on a weekly basis:

• Juniper Education’s Home Learning Pack for Teachers for curriculum ideas and inspiration mapped to the Early Learning Goals and Primary National Curriculum subject content.
• Juniper Education’s Parent Timetables for KS1 and KS2 for additional ideas and inspiration.

Getting off to a flying start once we return to school

Once we know more about how and when we will all return to school and the expectations of how the curriculum will be progressed in your setting, you can then harness the power of the Classroom Monitor analysis tools to give your pupils the best possible start.

• Re-sorting the assessments in your markbooks will help you identify what has not been taught or what has been taught but not secured. This will help prioritise the areas that need additional attention in order to progress learning.
• Using the Assessment Summaries and Pupil reports will give you summaries of each individual’s needs in order to plan for their progression.
• Curriculum tracking will enable you to quickly identify pupils with similar needs to be grouped for targeted intervention.

Further resources

A huge selection of materials and guidance to help keep your school running effectively during lock down can be found on the Juniper Education Resource Hub. This area is being updated daily, with posts sharing new material on Juniper LinkedIn and Juniper Twitter feeds.