The extra Covid challenges faced by a special needs school - The Jewish Chronicle

As a headteacher, I can honestly say that it has been extremely challenging fulfilling our remit throughout the Covid lockdowns. As all schools have, we have had to balance the needs of our pupils and parental body, along with the safety of the school community as a whole.

However, as the only special needs provision in our three surrounding boroughs that remained open for the entirety of all lockdowns, we had a unique responsibility to our very niche pupil body.

My school, T’Mimei Lev — Manchester Jewish School for Special Education — is an independent Jewish school for special needs pupils that caters for children from three months to the age of 25, allowing young adults with special needs within the community to further their education. We aim to provide the pupils with a broad, creative and stimulating education, with a particular emphasis on developing the independent life skills and confidence of our pupils.

Differentiated learning and cross-curricular topic teaching is used to ensure that all pupils are encouraged to realise their full potential. Specialist teachers and in-house therapists add depth and breadth to our curriculum, in addition to providing invaluable resources.

Pupils are encouraged to learn through investigation and much of the curriculum is hands on to enable all types of learners to access the curriculum. T’Mimei Lev is a provision with strong Jewish values where community and tolerance are encouraged.

In mainstream schools, teachers were able to engage with pupils for somewhat regular lessons and give work that the children were able to complete with minimal support. With our most physically vulnerable pupils and staff remaining at home over lockdown, we provided four Zoom sessions a day.

However, it was impossible to cater to the individual needs of our pupils and many of them are both not able to access the Zoom sessions independently, nor complete any accompanying work without ample adult support. Pupil interaction through the Zooms was minimal and it was a very difficult undertaking to engage all the pupils.

Parents were frustrated as the expectations to provide a constant service to occupy their children could not possibly be met by the school. The frustration we felt on not being able to provide the high level of service that we were used to giving led to a fall in staff morale as we just could not live up to the expected standards within the restrictions.

Equally for those that remained in school, the changes that had to be made to accommodate bubbles, when we have therapists and specialist teachers that had to move throughout the school, were difficult for our pupils that require a strict routine. Our classes were amalgamated and therefore the curriculum needed adjusting to cater for the variety of differing academic abilities.

Going into the third year of Covid, we are doing everything in our power to keep the school to our normal routine. Government guidelines and the reduction of isolation days have made a huge difference to the smooth running of our school. We hope that by minimising disruption, we can swiftly fill the gaps in our pupils education that they have missed. Right now, we are focussing on celebrating all achievements and getting back to normal schooling without the constant threat of school closures.

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