Ms Teresa Griffin:

It is one of the things the NCSE has been focusing on with regard to the resources we have provided over the summer for parents and teachers. We have highlighted apps of the week and themes of the week. We have issued brochures on the promotion of positive behaviour at home and the promotion of learning at home. These have been some of our more popular measures. Over the summer, and for the summer programme, we are looking at trying to develop resources for teacher professional learning with the themes of calmness, safety and social connectivity. We are looking at perhaps having a resource on getting started and the time at home.

Fundamentally what this crisis has shown is that there is a digital divide and a learning divide. Some teachers were able to get into Microsoft Teams immediately and others were not. There is quite a lot to reflect on and a lot to learn from. In the context of continuing professional development, in the next year we will be looking at online learning.