Special School Lockdown: Recent Episodes
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Find out what happened in one special school from March 20th 2020 when the government announced school closure due to the global pandemic COVID 19. Hosted by Amy, Robbie and Ros the HeadTeacher and featuring other contributors from their community, they share personal accounts of the very different and beautiful world of special school education during these unique and strange times. Birch Wood School is an area special school (4-19 years) in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. It caters for a wide range of special needs across 2 sites including the original purpose built all through special school and Birch Wood Vale- a secondary school for children with moderate learning difficulties. As a National Autism Society Accredited School they have specialist Autism provisions for children with mainstream learning and cognition, but who require additional support associated with their autism.
Robbie, Amy and Ros are back for Episode 7, where we cover what life has been like in a special school post lockdown 1 and during lockdown 2 as we built up to a very different Christmas season. We discuss remote teaching and the impact of the pandemic on our community and the teaching profession in general. The podcast ends on a reflection of what Christmas and the new term turned out like, as we entered lockdown 3.
Leader and class teacher, Hannah O'Mara shares her personal experiences of teaching students with PMLD during lockdown. This is an excellent insight in to how teachers creatively reached out to students to provide stimulating learning experiences in the most challenging of circumstances. We discuss the dilemmas and questions facing our community at this time and the safety measures we put in place to enable us to keep providing an education to our very special young people.
This is an incredibly insightful and personal account of lockdown from our Parent Governor Kerry Clarkson, mum to 10 year old Evan, who has Angelman's Syndrome. This is a 'must listen' for anyone working within SEND who needs an little inspiration right now. Kerry beautifully explains how we can be 'lights' at difficult times and also the unique challenges of parenting a special needs child during the pandemic. Kerry shares both her joy and the bravery required when your child has special needs; her experiences will resonant with many parents and provide a voice to our community at such an important time.
Amy and Robbie will be rejoining us in a couple weeks to reflect on the big 're-opening' post lockdown.
This week we reflect on how we managed confirmed cases of the Coronavirus in school and the emotions we went through as a leaders and staff knowing we may be infected ourselves. We also discuss how we supported colleagues return to work after social isolation and the sometimes mixed emotions of being a 'key worker'.
We explore how our special school was organised to open more widely after the government announced England had met the 5 safety tests set out to help lift lock down. Set against the backdrop of Leicester's localized lockdown we discuss leadership approaches and operational measures to help keep everyone safe in school and also the joy of seeing more young people in our buildings from June 1st.
In this episode Amy, Robbie and Ros reflect on the decision to introduce PPE and the implications in the school environment. Amy and Robbie explore some of the complex behaviours which the Coronavirus has led to for some students and how we work with our young people and their families to overcome the anxiety and confusion which leads to these behaviours.
In this episode we share our personal reflections of the weeks leading up to school closure and how it felt from inside the offices and classrooms for staff and leaders as we tried to navigate the impact of what seemed like unreal events in the world around us.