Reaching the unreachable
It’s very easy for students to go off the radar when it comes to education; how can a school stay on top of a student’s progress if, for example, that student has been suspended for a prolonged period? How can they effectively identify gaps in a student’s knowledge if mental health issues means that same student rarely completes a full week at school? Academic success and achievement shouldn’t be reserved only for those students sitting within the classroom walls, and it is each school’s responsibility to ensure this isn’t the case.
Sam Warnes, a former teacher and founder of EDLounge, explains how virtual classrooms can enable schools to reach all their students, dramatically improving the engagement, attendance and achievement of even those students who, up until now, may have been ‘unreachable’.
Paul was the class clown, James was the attention seeker, and John was always the one getting into classroom scuffles. Even throughout my own schooldays, every class had at least one ‘disruptive’ student. I’ve spent over five years as a teacher, and in truth, not much has changed, although nowadays these students are more commonly referred to as ‘disengaged’. And I believe that is what the vast majority are, simply disengaged.
Disengagement can manifest itself in many different ways: bad behaviour, defiance, creating chaos, refusal to complete tasks or take part in classroom activities, attention seeking, physical or verbal abuse, or complete indifference. Anything to avoid the actual process of learning.
Undoubtedly, engagement is the key to success for all students. So, as educators (and event as parents), how do we keep all our students engaged, and re-engage those who may be a little more ‘reluctant’?
Thank you Stuart for your kind words. I think the progress shown at every decision made is paramount for each learner and this should be made for each learner instinctively. Finding the progress is our next fight for each individual and making them personalised for each learner is the key! How we do this is the challenge. Being available is easy. Listening and offering support online is simple and precise but the breaking of other peoples / bureaucrats barriers to what they want to do for these learners is the key to show it has to change to reach the unreachable.
Sam, I think you ask a very poignant question here & I think taking time out to reflect on the answers are essential to the provision of good education both in schools & throughout life as many of these characteristics follow young people into employment if they are lucky and disengaged unemployment if not. After all the 4.5% GCSE attainment rate of AP learners nationally compared with 65% of people staying in Mainstream education is a shocker and I am positive your system will deliver serious impact on these results. As an education sector bid writer we often address these things through the commissioning questions, but in reality the truth is that these issues are not quite so black and white. The use of technology is clearly a way to reach young people who would otherwise be lost to the traditional education systems and bring them back to education through engagement in individualised support. I was very impressed to see the level of engagement of pupils using the new Edlounge, EdVirtual & Edclass systems when researching participant feedback in your last bid. The ownership displayed by the pupils was staggering considering the levels of disengagement on entry to the programme. The system & your live teach tutors were amazing at progressing learners education. I am intrigued and awaiting the long term success rates of your AP offer. Many schools would do well to look at your systems in developing a more robust response to their AP provision.