Minutes:
The Chair referred to teaching in a virtual world and said that it was important that SACRE had awareness of the potential increased workload for teaching and support staff to deliver virtual lessons. Most schools already had virtual learning platforms in place. He provided details of the platform that was used in the school where he taught, and the resources that were made available for children in poverty.
He then referred to the difficulties encountered once children were back in school, then some classes had to self-isolate at home, so some weeks teachers conducted face to face lessons, then had to quickly revert to virtual lessons.
He wanted to make SACRE Members aware of the impact of COVID in the classroom and how schools had gone above and beyond normal workloads to adapt and change resources and to deliver quality education. He then indicated that Religious Education was a subject that requires high levels of analysis and evaluation involving critical thinking, which was difficult to teach in a virtual environment where there can sometimes be limited responses, interaction and engagement; but there was some positive work done using the virtual platform.
D Van der Velde indicated that the problems encountered with Durham Schools reaching out to children who did not have computers or internet access was the same in Northumberland and across most of the North East. There were also issues with poor internet connections.
She then mentioned that access to a range of faith communities was an important part of RE and said that she had carried out some virtual and face-to-face sessions for schools during the pandemic. The Chair responded that schools had not been inviting visitors due to the additional risks and that offers to carry out virtual sessions with schools were welcomed and would be fed back to the RE network.
B Dunn indicated that, from a teacher’s perspective, he supported the chair’s concerns regarding the social economic factors and access to technology, which had been a massive challenge. Schools had put a huge amount of effort into getting technology resources, but some students still needed paper resources, and that had resulted into two lots of work having to be produced. A lot of work was done by teachers to prepare different ways to get engagement. He provided some examples of how this was achieved. Teachers had put in a lot of effort and work to get the best possible deal for young people, and had been well supported by schools and their leadership.
W Gray indicated that she had also had a request to visit a school virtually, and was happy to do this. As a parent she appreciated the work that schools and teachers had done so that education had continued during the pandemic.
The Chair wished to give a note of thanks to RE colleagues and school leaders, and for the support received through Education Durham for all their work during these difficult times.