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BROUGHT TO PRIMARY SCHOOL MANAGEMENT YOU BY Finance control Should you centralise? Welcome back Reconnect after SCHOOL BUSINESS ADVICE the lockdown Emergency planning PREPARE FOR THE UNEXPECTED Tender problem? Ease your goods and services woes STRETCH YOUR TECH BUDGET How to get a great deal Snap happy Student wellbeing Inspections Beware the perils Are you doing more Visit the classroom of pupil photos harm than good? – don’t observe WWW.PRIMARYLEADERS.COM PSM 4.6 master_PSM 21/08/2020 11:19 Page 2 From the editor Our experts this issue How is everyone getting on with the ‘new normal’? It’s time to throw open the school gates and welcome back all pupils with open arms. Ok, not so open, maybe a safe, social distant, Sue Birchall Donna Tandy thumbs up might be more appropriate. Business manager Deputy CEO/academy Welcoming all children back to school after at The Malling improvement partner the Covid-19 lockdown is sure to have its School, Kent at Focus Trust challenges. I seem to have the tune for ‘I’m forever blowing bubbles’ constantly rotating through my thoughts and I’m not a West Ham fan! Keeping both pupils and staff safe is paramount. There are fears of a second wave and local spikes in infection as more and more people get out and about. Cleanliness and hygiene in schools has always been a priority but even more so now. Hand washing routines, Jo Gray Laura Williams Head of school Executive coach and making sure that coughs and sniffles are development and trainer working with properly dealt with and dealing with possible literacy, One headteachers, SBLs Coronavirus symptoms are things that are Education Ltd and CEOs going to become commonplace. For some pupils this will be the first time they have been back to a school setting since March. The lockdown may have created wellbeing problems, especially among SEND pupils. In this issue we take a look at how we can identify any problems and ways to ease children back into learning. And it isn’t just pupil’s wellbeing that needs to be addressed. Richard Harley Hilary Goldsmith We also examine why it is necessary to keep CEO of School business an eye on teacher mental health and wellbeing ScholarPack leadership consultant as well. We also ask what lessons have been learned from the lockdown? And look at how some schools dealt with the problem and how future closures can be handled. So I wish everyone good luck as we take the first steps back into a new school year. Enjoy the issue. Emma Hollis Winston Poyton Mark Hayhurst Executive director of the Senior product [email protected] National Association of director at IRIS School-Based Teacher Software Group Trainers (NASBTT) POWERFUL VISIT TEACHWIRE.NET/PRIMARY PICTUREBOOKS HIGHLIGHTS HELP PUPILS PROCESS LOCKDOWN BACK TO SCHOOL WHAT DOES OFSTED WANT? HOW TO 100 reports analysed REBUILD EMBRACING DIVERSITY EDTECH ON A BUDGET TRUST Inspire hope with Dr Seuss Setting up bilingual clubs How to get a great deal Science 12 36 deep dive Implementation CAMPFIRE Intent Impact COOKING FEED THEIR Boost CURIOSITY learning with one ISSNISSUE:1756-6509 14.5 PRICE: £4.99 word 05 From the makers 9 771756 650016 PLUS TEACHER’S WELLBEING HOLD ON TO YOUR STAFF of Teach Primary Support your staff Up your retention rate SEND LESSON PLANS STEM Developmental language disorder signs Use coding to ‘alter’ news websites Top up your knowledge with online CPD 16 72 PRIMARY SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 3 9 School Improvement 33 Technology • It’s a love match • Keep calm and carry on • Helping or hindering? • Tech support • Science is everywhere • Questions of resilience EDITOR: Mark Hayhurst 12 CELEBRATING DIVERSITY 36 STRETCH YOUR SCHOOL’S [email protected] How to set up bilingual clubs TECH BUDGET 01206 508618 Top tips on how to get a good deal when GROUP ADVERTISING MANAGER: investing in new tech 14 MAKING PROGRESS Richard Stebbing How to conduct staff appraisals ADVERTISING MANAGERS: 39 FROM G SUITE TO ZOOM Gabrielle Pitts 16 PROTECT YOUR STAFF ASSEMBLIES [email protected] Ways of looking after the wellbeing of How you can utilise technology 01206 505956 teachers post Coronavirus Samantha Law 40 IS THERE A PLACE FOR [email protected] 21 BUILDINGS AND TECHNOLOGY CO-PRODUCTION? 01206 505499 FACILITIES A rewarding boon or GROUP EDITOR: Joe Carter burdensome bother? • Creating new spaces ART EDITOR: Sarah Mayes • Flood not famine DESIGNERS: Adam Barford & Luke Rogers • Alcohol free 43 Community Engagement ACCOUNTS: 01206 505995 25 LIGHT AND OUTDOOR DESIGN & REPROGRAPHICS: SPACE • Devise a smartphone policy Ace Pre-Press New school for Ebbsfleet • Get your message out there 01206 508608 • Beware keyboard warriors SUBSCRIPTIONS DEPARTMENT: 28 ECO WARRIORS Andrea Turner How to get your pupils engaged with 46 ARE YOU SITTING the environment COMFORTABLY? SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES: Advice for organising an author visit 0330 333 0043 CUSTOMER SERVICES: [email protected] 55 Legal & HR 0800 904 7000 • Make the right choice PUBLISHER: Helen Tudor • Stop the teacher drain • Snap happy PUBLISHED BY: Maze Media (2000) Ltd, 25 Phoenix Court, Hawkins Rd, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8JY. 60 BE PROACTIVE IN YOUR 01206 505900 PROCESS Take a strategic approach to risk management 63 ARE YOU READY FOR A LOCAL SPIKE? Important lessons in health and safety preparedness 65 Budgeting • Do you have a tender problem • Are you prepared? • Should you centralise 71 Leadership • Visit don’t observe • Hold on to your staff 74 HOW WILL WE COPE WITH THE NEW NORMAL? What to consider as children with SEND return to school 76 WHY ‘CATCH UP’ WON’T WORK Focusing solely on academic learning when pupils return is damaging 4 PRIMARY SCHOOL MANAGEMENT PSM 4.6 master_PSM 21/08/2020 11:19 Page 5 Keep the noise down! Jamie Thom, self-confessed introvert, English teacher, TES columnist and host of the TES English teaching podcast, explains why quiet should play an important role in education What led you to write your book quiet? Am I not like my friends who are much teaching, that sense of ease that you might A Quiet Education? more, on the surface, gregarious and chatty. get in a classroom where you’re free to just Basically, I’m a fully fledged introvert myself. I I think one of the things we have to do as perform and be a slightly more extreme was very quiet at school and I’m quite a quiet teachers is celebrate the quieter quality, the version of yourself. adult. Obviously, as a teacher, you’re conscious deep concentration that our introverted I’m conscious of giving space for silence that schools can be hugely extrovert-designed students will be capable of and the in my lessons. Partly for my own selfish, places, full of group work, collaboration and questioning they will be doing internally of restorative need. But partly because I communal space. Also the way quiet is what’s being shared in the lessons. recognise that any real deep thinking referred to in schools isn’t often the best: needs silence to facilitate that. If you are “They are a brilliant student but too quiet.” I Teachers can be quiet as well. What can we that quiet a teacher, how can you allow wanted to challenge that narrative and offer learn from them? yourself to restore, to have a long career in something a little bit more celebratory about One of the lovely things about writing the education, particularly primary teaching. the values of quiet that can exist in schools. book was finding out how many teachers My mom was a wonderful primary school consider themselves to be more introverted. teacher for years and years but the most How can we build more effective It’s a profession that, on the surface, introverted human being you can ever relationships with quieter pupils? demands a degree of being an extrovert. You meet. And I think she helped me out a lot You will have kids who just sit down, who have to perform in front of groups of young in terms of what can more introverted don’t want to engage or happily get on with people and bring a certain degree of people do to restore themselves? the work. Should teachers be looking at that enthusiasm and vibrancy. and try to bring them out? Or should they just Not that introverts aren’t capable of that but I But it’s not just the classroom that quiet encourage them to learn? think that’s the stereotype, that introverts are teachers have to deal with, is it? I think we’ve got to respect the fact that hidden in the cupboard with a book, whereas The other real challenge of being a some people have innate temperaments. We the reality is that lots of teachers are teacher is the huge interpersonal and shouldn’t try to impose an extrovert ideal on channelling more extroverted performances communication demands. That’s where particularly younger children. There are in the classroom. you’ve got to have a degree of selfishness. insecurities that come with that: am I too For myself, that’s actually one of the joys of If you know that you are an individual who needs quiet to restore yourself then you have to find out what works for you to switch off. I spoke to so many teachers who had amazing things they did, from marathon running to bird watching. Anything that will help you to find the quiet and find the recharge you need to do the job well. There’s lots of research correlating introversion with more burnout.