Owing to the pandemic, and the move to online teaching and learning for significant chunks of time, most people working in Scottish education now know what e-Sgoil (e-School) is.
The expertise clocked up by the Western Isles Council initiative - which launched in 2016 with the aim of offering live online lessons - was much sought after when the coronavirus made it impossible for the majority of pupils to attend school in person for weeks on end in 2020 and 2021.
But when Tes Scotland first started writing about e-Sgoil, there were concerns that it would mean a reduction in teacher numbers and more lessons moving online. In reality, e-Sgoil - and the flexibility it offers - has made it possible for many teachers who would otherwise have been pushed out of the profession to keep on working. Mairi MacKay - whom Tes Scotland visited in 2018 for our first big read about the initiative - was a case in point.
MacKay - a Gaelic and history teacher - made it clear to us that if it had not been for e-Sgoil, she would have been unable to keep teaching. Her son was born with a rare condition and was out of school for periods of up to six weeks at a time. She needed a job that allowed her to work from home. E-Sgoil provided that, and we watched as she delivered a Gaelic speakers’ class for S5s at Oban High in Argyll and Bute, using a laptop in her living room in Perth, nearly 100 miles away.
E-Sgoil was set up to provide equal access to courses and subjects for pupils, irrespective of whether they were able to attend the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway, which has more than 1,000 pupils, or Castlebay Community School on the island of Barra, with a secondary roll of around 80 pupils.
It came into being because the council was struggling to deliver on its goal that all pupils should have access to six secondary subjects through the medium of Gaelic. However, the potential of the virtual-teaching model at a time of staff shortages was recognised, and the Scottish government invested £550,000 in the project.
Yet even in 2018, e-Sgoil’s reach went beyond the schools in its own local authority - at that time it was delivering about a dozen subjects, had a steady presence in eight councils and had been used in 31.
E-Sgoil headteacher Angus Maclennan, who was a depute head at the Nicolson Institute before taking up his post, was excited about its potential when it came to making Gaelic a living, breathing language. He was also energised by the help it could give to those with additional support needs and the potential for increasing the reach of music tuition.
In 2018, we spoke to the mother of a teenager with anorexia, who had missed six months of school because she was too weak to attend. The e-Sgoil made it possible for her to take part in key subjects, such as English, maths and geography, in her own home, three miles from the school.
All the advantages that an online teaching offer could bring were, therefore, apparent in 2018. But so were the challenges - one of Mackay’s lessons did not go ahead because of issues setting up the video conferencing, for example. E-Sgoil has never claimed, though, that what it provides is better than face-to-face delivery. As Maclennan said back in 2018, it is about “adding value” - or intervening in a crisis.
What happened next?
In 2018, online learning was a novel concept - something the majority of teachers probably thought unlikely to ever form part of their remit. Of course, all that changed when the Covid-19 pandemic forced school buildings to close in March 2020 and again in January 2021.
During the first lockdown, provision of live online lessons was patchy but, by the time schools were forced to close their doors for the second time, there was an expectation that all pupils would receive at least some face-to-face time with their teachers (albeit virtually).
Understandably, given its wealth of expertise, e-Sgoil increased in prominence - the Scottish government asked it and curriculum and inspection body Education Scotland to ensure “the availability of online lessons that will help to support the work of classroom teachers”.
E-Sgoil became a key part of the “national e-learning offer”, providing a timetable of live lessons that pupils could opt into, which were complemented by pre-recorded lessons offered by West OS (Online School) via the national digital learning network Glow, as well as a resources bank.
By autumn 2020, e-Sgoil was also offering supported study sessions to senior-phase students across the country. That provision continues and there are now 48 courses offered - from National 4 to Advanced Higher - from Monday to Thursday, at 5pm, 6pm and 7pm.
E-Sgoil continues to support schools to address shortages or to enhance the curriculum. It has upped its support for primary schools, creating programmes of specialists’ input in subjects such as art, but also from charities such as Keep Scotland Beautiful, which ran a series of live online lessons ahead of COP26.
“The teacher does not have to be a master of all,” says Maclennan, adding that if a teacher facilitates online lessons in a subject area they are less confident in, they also improve their own skills.
However, in order to make the most of what technology has to offer, the mindset when it comes to the delivery of the curriculum has to change, he says. Schools and councils have to see it is “feasible and desirable” to do things differently, not just be forced into it by a pandemic.
Emma Seith is a reporter for Tes Scotland
