How can schools identify what support children need if the pandemic deprives them of the usual tools at their disposal?

Lockdown for schools in the United Arab Emirates arrived much as it did for those in most countries – initially as a measure designed to last a couple of weeks that was eventually extended to cover the remainder of the academic year as the severity of the pandemic became more apparent.

Nord Anglia International School, a large, well-established all-through day school in Dubai, was only able to reopen its doors to in-person teaching in September of last year. Since then, parents have had the choice either to send their children into school or continue with remote learning, with roughly 25-30% opting for the latter.

As the school caters to children from a wide range of nationalities – 76 at the last count– the school was mindful of the impact lockdown could have on literacy for children who weren’t necessarily immersed in the language at home.

Fortunately, says Amel Dali-bey, the Head of English for Primary, most children’s reading ability held up pretty well – with 49% of pupils making above average progress, 46% expected progress and only 5% registering less than expected progress which mirrors the experience of international schools worldwide, according to a GL Education analysis. “A few of our lower-ability children made lower than expected progress during the period of home schooling, but at other end of the spectrum, higher ability children continued to read independently – there was no change in terms of progress.” Girls generally tended to perform slightly better than boys, she says.

In-year tracking informs curriculum changes

The school has used the New Group Reading Test (NGRT) for several years, three times a year, and the wealth of data available provided a critical support. “When we started distance learning we had some data from our second data capture to inform our teaching of reading,” says Amel. “The reason we originally chose NGRT is because it allows us to track in- year progress before the end of the year so we can plan interventions at the correct time, not only retrospectively.”

The school promoted reading at home during lockdown through social media platforms “and tried to encourage a community of readers and promote reading for pleasure”. Amel believes their efforts were largely successful, and the school is confident children have been reading. But lockdown made them aware as educators that they couldn’t take anything for granted, which is why having a data baseline was so important. “You have to check for all ability ranges because some of the levers that were available in school aren’t anymore.”

‘You can teach remotely, but it’s harder to investigate remotely’

Online teaching posed its own challenges: “You can teach remotely, but it’s harder to investigate remotely,” Amel points out. There wasn’t as much opportunity to listen to children read aloud, it wasn’t as easy to question children, or to clarify understanding or any comprehension gap. Even with most children now back in school, teachers don’t have as many opportunities to support readers as they had previously. “Children have to wear masks constantly in school and social distance measures are still in place so there aren’t the opportunities for group guided reading sessions as we would have done previously.”

Although the school wasn’t able to assess pupils during lockdown, Amel still believes the assessment was invaluable. “Even without the pandemic, teachers tend to feel that reading is a difficult area to assess properly, but that’s especially true remotely. So NGRT gave us valuable tools as we went into lockdown, especially as we had just completed an assessment, and we were able to modify our curriculum appropriately.”

Next steps

The priority for Amel and her team for the rest of the academic year is to focus on comprehension and inference and, lower down the age range, phonics and phonic gaps. “We’ve also had a big push on widening our pupils’ vocabulary all the way from Year 1 to Year 6 and not just in English but across the curriculum, to check their understanding of vocab in science, for example.”

Amel points out that although NGRT gives a wealth of data it’s how you use it and what you do with it that’s important. “Tracking in year progress is very important, as is a clear assessment cycle, especially where you have a high turnover of students and high parental expectations.”

And there is one other benefit NGRT gives to teachers valuable progress data to support conversations with parents: “It’s easier to explain that although your child may be working towards age-related expectations, they have made more than expected progress in reading., which is an incredibly useful thing to be able to say.