Provision Map – Lockdown – What do I do with my account?
This blog was presented as a webinar on 15th and 22nd January 2021.
To access a recording of the webinar please click here.
Lockdown 3 – and the semi-closure of school gates along with a lot of unanswered questions. There’s a lot going on at the moment, but some of you are on the ball and asking how you reflect your alternative remote offer for SEN pupils using Provision Maps. Here are our top tips…
Close off your current provisions with the end date 5th January
Unless they are continuing to run, there is little point letting them tick along. If you have review data enter it, if not you might want to remove the need to review from the provision.
The argument here is that you have ‘budgeted’ for those provisions. My counter-argument is that you have but you are now viring that funding to the provision of a viable alternative. You want the ‘provision map’ for an individual child to be accurate and not suggest that they received a provision throughout the lockdown that wasn’t taking place. My exception to this is where you have paid for something that you cannot get refunded – for example perhaps you had an external individual coming in who is holding you to contract but not providing an alternative (that’s a different conversation) or you have put something in place that the child can access but because the parent has chosen not to send them in they are not able to use it. In these cases, remove the need to review (as you won’t be able to) and add something in the notes column to explain, but leave the costs and dates to their natural end date.
By doing this, you will have an accurate provision map for each child that shows what they have received and how much it has cost.
Add your new, alternative offerings.
What you might find is that some students do not attend those new offering – but that is something to be addressed elsewhere, you have made the ‘provision’ available. This might include TAs attending online lessons alongside teachers so that they are aware of the content and then additional time for the TA to work with a small group or 1:1 with students to support them with their tasks. It might include upskilling the team in specific areas of need (pay for a course and allocate the relevant students, staff and time). We don’t know the end date at the moment so I’d suggest putting in until February 22nd and then the date can be extended if necessary (or at least the alternative provision offer can be reviewed then, and decisions made.)
Update your learning plans for students.
If you need something for TAs to do, then get them on this task. Look at the targets that were originally set and either remove the need to review, close the review off with a generic statement “unable to complete due to lockdown”, adjust the target criteria or review and refresh.
The aim here is to ensure that we have the evidence for the APDR (assess-plan-do-review) cycle – and that might mean amending some of the targets to reflect what can be delivered remotely. Instead of learning the spelling of 10 key words, perhaps it needs reducing to 5 (or maybe increasing to 20!)
Phoning parents, reviewing current plans and setting reasonable targets that can be achieved during this time is time-consuming but valuable and if your TAs are unable to support lessons or provisions this is a good use of their time and allows relationships to be built.
Modify your templates.
You might want to consider changing your plan templates to include some notes about remote learning. A little like we sometimes include a box of information about reasonable adjustments, it might be useful to include a ‘remote learning’ box with information such as whether the students are sharing devices, only have a parent available to support from 9-12, need PowerPoints sending in advance of an online lesson, have a timetabled TA support slot from 2-3pm each day. This doesn’t replace information held elsewhere but could serve as an ‘at-a-glance’ summary of what specific students need in order to access a remote learning session.
Use the sharing facilities built into Provision Map.
Get that information updated and shared. Make sure staff have accounts, even if they are read only, so they can see the information. Use the parent accounts to share the current learning plan with them online. Use the external agency accounts to engage with external services and get their input. If you have School Robins, use it to collate or share information about specific students or cohorts. Or use the Meetings Logs to record notes from phone calls, feedback sessions, provisions or other sources.