Education Scotland praises Dundee City Council's response to supporting learners during school closures

Dundee City Council has received praise from Education Scotland for the work it is doing to support learners in response to the closure of schools during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Council is delivering support for practitioners through a city-wide Microsoft Team which staff can join via Glow, the national online learning environment which is freely available to all learners and teachers in Scotland.

This team provides support for Dundee teachers offering access to training materials, guides and links to national Education Scotland resources. This includes a range of webinars to build practitioner skills in using tools to engage with learners through Glow.

Schools are using Microsoft Teams or Google Classroom within Glow to engage with learners, and share learning activities and opportunities with children and young people in both primary and secondary settings.

All secondary schools have also created a Parent Portal to help parents support their children in using digital tools. This includes links to learning sites, such as Scholar, which ensure young people can access learning resources and information at their appropriate level.

Gayle Gorman, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Chief Executive of Education Scotland, said:

“With the ever-changing situation with Covid-19, it is a challenging time for everyone and we recognise the pressure that teachers, local authorities and children are facing during this difficult time.

“From Education Scotland, to local authorities and teachers, we all have responsibilities for ensuring learning continues for Scotland’s young people during this unprecedented period of disruption, including ensuring support for our most vulnerable pupils.

“Empowerment, leadership and collaboration has been key in recent weeks, with everyone across the educational system working hard to support learning at home, as well as supporting keyworkers’ children through the childcare offer in local authority learning hubs.

“The work which Dundee City Council has been doing, including its impressive use of Glow, is an excellent example of how authorities can adapt to a completely new way of working to ensure that learning continues for children and young people. I want to thank the council, the teachers and the support staff for demonstrating their commitment to providing the best for our young people.”

Audrey May, Head of Service (Chief Education Officer) at Dundee City Council, said:

“I am delighted that our schools have worked hard, with great support from our Digital Education Support Officers, to create online (and offline) resources and support for pupils of all ages and stages.

“The wide range of communication and collaboration tools available through the Glow service have helped us to ensure that learning continues outside of the classroom for our pupils. Through our Parent Portal, we are also helping parents and carers to work in partnership with us and their children to support their ongoing learning through this challenging time.”

Education Scotland has changed the way it is working to provide tailored support to local authorities, teachers and pupils across Scotland in response to the closure of schools.

Upon the announcement of the closure of schools, Education Scotland contacted all local authorities with an offer of support, including to make staff available to be deployed in hubs, early years or educational establishments following specific requests from local authorities.

Working closely with its wide networks to determine the tailored support, advice and resources which would be most beneficial for helping parents and practitioners at this time, Education Scotland has announced it will:

• create a resource bank of learning activities aimed at a variety of ages which will be created and uploaded on a weekly basis;
• introduce a new weekly newsletter for parents with a range of learning activities;
• introduce a new weekly newsletter for educators to share good practice from partners, learning activities, the range of support available and approaches for learning taking place across Scotland;
• deliver a range of webinars and support sessions for practitioners focusing on learning, teaching and assessment to support young people to continue with their learning and make progress;
• continue to develop and provide guidance on the effective use of Glow.

This additional support bolsters the offering already available from Education Scotland which includes a bank of online resources featuring collated materials across curriculum areas and sectors, a range of webinars to help practitioners get the most of out of Glow, and practical advice and tips for parents through the Parents’ Club online resource and the Parentzone Scotland website.

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