Dark days of Covid can't dim Cullen Primary's sparkle
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KEEPING their sparkle has helped light the way for staff at Cullen Primary during the often dark days of the pandemic.
Like their colleagues across the country, teachers and support staff at the school were plunged into unknown territory when Covid forced schools to close and education to move online.
Helping keeping the torch lit at Cullen Primary is headteacher Carene Hay, who was in the job less than a year before the unimaginable engulfed society.
She said: "It's not something I ever dreamt I'd experience and after the end of the first lockdown I never thought we'd find ourselves having to return to remote learning.
"When the schools closed last year we all had to adapt at a rapid pace but we worked as a team tremendously well to cope.
"Everyone went above and beyond; there're no textbooks for a situation like that, we had to support each other through it.
"In August, we sat down as a staff and used what we had learned to form a contingency plan to use as a template if we ever had to go into lockdown again, although most of us never thought we'd actually have to use it. We did make one change to what we did during the first lockdown, focusing on core learning such as literacy and numeracy. We also introduced Family Challenge Fridays during the previous lockdown and continued this into our current situation. Challenges provide fun learning for the whole family with a STEAM theme."
As a profession teachers and support staff have shone during the pandemic and those at Cullen have been no different.
"The team at Cullen have not only risen to the challenge but have moved forward with resilience," Mrs Hay continued.
"Ever single member of staff has gone above and beyond, they have been incredible. It's so easy to get overwhelmed in a situation like this but we all helped and supported each other.
"Our pupils are at the centre of everything we do and our teachers and support staff have been working harder than ever before.
"They're all incredible."
Mrs Hay went on to outline some of the many methods being used by teachers to not only maintain youngsters' education but drive it forward. A great deal of work is put in by staff to creating pre-recorded videos and voice-over powerpoints for each set of learning, which pupils then watch, undertake the required work and send this back to their teacher who then gives high quality, supportive feedback to move learning forward.
Teachers at Cullen are also making themselves available for parents to message should their child experience difficulty with a particular points, providing bespoke support for each pupil.
Mrs Hay, who also records weekly assemblies as part of the effort to keep a positive frame of mind among children and staff, said that it was important that it was vital to be sensitive to everybody's circumstances. With this in mind, the school has adopted an encouraging and supportive approach with parents rather than censorious one.
She went on to praise the parents for their backing through the pandemic, saying that average parental engagement with the remote learning process was in the order of 90 per cent.
What is often forgotten in debates about education in lockdown is that teachers are not immune to the pressures and worries Covid and lockdown has brought.
Trying to keep a healthy work-life balance has been essential, Mrs Hay revealed.
"It's very difficult to draw the line between work and home, teachers are not used sitting in front of screen all day. It's a very unnatural situation not to be in front of a class.
"Our focus with the staff has been on wellbeing. They are so dedicated and have a strong sense of duty of care that it's oftedifficultlt for them to switch off.
"A request for help with school work could come in at 7pm and for most teachers the temptation is to deal with it there and then even though it's in their own time.
"On top of this there is the sheer quantity of notes and guidance which come from the Scottish Government. I try to filter this down so the staff receive the most relevant and up to date information. There's a tremendous workload involved in remote teaching and I continuously try to take cognisance of the manageability of staying informed whilst getting the core job done."
Some kids – those with key worker parents, who are deemed vulnerable or have additional support needs – have, however, continued to attend school and Mrs Hay said that during the current lockdown the decision to keep them at Cullen rather than attending a hub had made a huge, positive difference.
Monday, February 22 did bring with it a much-needed moment of joy when the P1-3 pupils returned to their desks.
Mrs Hay added: "Everyone was so excited, we're delighted to have them back and we're all raring to go.
"Hopefully we'll see a more normality returning throughout the school year. Seeing the P1-3s coming in is light at the end of tunnel.
"We're telling the P4-7s that their time to come back will come, too.
"You have to focus on the positives, you're halfway there if you do.
"We're not going to lose our sparkle."
Mrs Hay took over as headteacher at Cullen in August 2019, having spent around 10 years working in West Lothian, initially in nurseries. She got the taste for leadership during a stint as an acting head and took on the post of depute headteacher for two years. She secured her first headship two years before coming to Cullen.
She said: "Myself and my husband, who's a teacher at Buckie High, had been coming to this area on holiday with our boys and we really loved it.
"It's so beautiful and the people are very friendly.
"We both decided we wanted a change of pace and lifestyle and we were also thinking about what sort of place we want our two boys to grow up in. When the Cullen job came up it just felt right and we've never looked back."
