Council IT effort to help digitally disengaged learners during pandemic praised by councillors

Wrexham Council helped 380 learners during the lockdown period to access learning by refurbishing laptops and acquiring new devices as part of Welsh Government funding.

The details were provided in a Lifelong Learning Scrutiny meeting yesterday – which was held to review the full re-opening of schools and the continuing impact of Covid-19 on education.

During the lockdown period, the majority of schools remained open to provide childcare for the children of key workers and for those who met the criteria for provision due to vulnerability. All schools were then required to prepare to open for three weeks from 29 June adopting a phased or staggered approach adhering to social distancing and hygiene requirements.

Approximately, a third of pupils were present at any one time.

At yesterday’s meeting Lead Member for Education Cllr Phil Wynn responded to a question from Cllr Phil Rees over engagement with students who may have been disconnected from the education system during lockdown for a range of reasons. He said: “Just responding to Cllr Phil Rees points about any gaps that were identified during this period.

“I think the two that come to mind; One is obviously those learners were digitally disconnected as they did not have the equipment.

” And if they did, it was probably just a phone or mobile phone.

“There was a great effort to roll out quite a number of laptops and Chromebooks to over 380 learners who otherwise would have struggled to engage.

“So that is a great credit at the Welsh Government for providing us with the funding to do that, and also to our IT managers and his team for actually being able to deliver that as short notice.”

“And then one gap, which I don’t think we’ve actually credited in the report is our staffing canteens, our canteen staff, because obviously there was a great concern from the beginning is how do we provide the daytime meals to those pupils who were entitled to free school meals.

“So again, it was a great credit that obviously the government eventually decided that we would make direct payments, but during that period, canteen stuff rallied around and created hubs where they prepared sandwiches that were then distributed to those that qualified and wanted.”

“We have probably forgot more than we could remember of all the good work that has been carried out by staff, but obviously I just wanted to give reassurance where where the gaps appeared, we did our best.”

The report before councillors explained the IT effort, noting: “During this period, support to ensure continuity of learning was required. Some pupils could not access online learning due to lack of suitable IT equipment and/or the required broadband connectivity.

“In partnership with the Welsh Government, as part of a grant, the service purchased 50 new Chromebooks to support families in immediate need. Alongside this, a number of corporate laptops and older laptops were refurbished and made available.

“In addition, 200 mobile 4G internet devices were procured to support families and learners who do not have an appropriate Internet connection at home. A total of 380 learners have been supported.”

The report also details a range of activity that took place headed up by the Council’s Health & Wellbeing Team offered a range of supporting activity to a vulnerable learners, including:

• ‘Inspire’ ran a weekly virtual youth club over zoom enabling children and young people to access a range of activities such as movie night, games including game shows i.e. play your cards right, the generation game, family fortunes, quizzes and lots more.
• 46 young people have been supported in one to one sessions who between them have engaged in 233 sessions via zoom or phone calls. There has also been further support via text messages.
• ‘Outside In’ has supported 232 young people from primary school age to 25 years. Approximately 468 sessions via zoom, telephone calls and text messages were delivered.
• ‘In2change’ young person’s drug and alcohol team continued to deliver interventions based around each young person’s individual need. 26 young people engaged in 127 one to one sessions via zoom or phone calls.
• The Health and Wellbeing Newsletter has had 323 subscribers. 75 newsletters have been sent since 20 March. These included 1131 links to resources and guidance have been placed on the newsletters and there have been 22,522 clicks on these links.
• TRAC – The primary team supported 115 pupils with 462 calls made to families. The secondary team made 3108 calls to pupils in Years 7-11 (and often their parents) between April and June 2020.

After a 2.5 hour meeting councillors noted their thanks to schools and staff since the March lockdown in the efforts detailed, and requested further information on specific areas of the report, and quarterly monitoring of progress.