Schools are heavily relying on their websites to support home learning during the COVID-19 lockdown, according to statistics from the UK’s largest supplier of educational websites.
PrimarySite‘s research has shown that teachers are using new communication streams to establish work activities, send messages and keep in touch with students, demonstrated in the considerable increase in blog posts and pages since schools were ordered to close on 20 March in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Upon reviewing the 4,600 schools PrimarySite support, researchers found that 132,131 new pages had been added in March to elevate remote learning content, as well as to enable strong communication between teachers and their classes. During this time, schools saw a colossal twentyfold increase in blogs, with over 17,328 new posts and 26,000 comments from pupils.
“Our website has been central to our vision of our communication, learning and community since schools closed on Friday 20 March and it has provided an amazing portal of learning opportunities for pupils,” said Simon Pile, assistant headteacher of Anson Primary School in London.
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“Class teachers all have their own area which is allowing them to keep learning moving and there is a mixture of online content, downloadable workbooks and quizzes and surveys which give children a chance to submit work and have this automatically marked. Using a web portal which can be translated into multiple languages has also allowed us to reach more parents,” added Pile.
“One of our biggest successes has been our blog which has enabled pupils to share their work, and teachers to interact with children in a safe and secure way and give them a boost.”
Schools across the country have been working remotely for the last two months, forcing teachers to innovate and adapt their use of education technology to meet the demand for home schooling. Blogs are fast proving themselves to be a successful, yet often overlooked, teaching tool in this complex time.
