3 │ INVOLVEMENT OF PUPILS IN DISTANCE LEARNING Distance learning in basic and upper secondary schools in the Czech Republic 19 In agreement with parents, teachers carry out individual consultations at any time and in various forms (in cases where the pupils themselves want to) or determine tutoring (in cases where the pupils themselves don’t initially want to, but the school considers it beneficial for the pupil’s progress). Lending laptops, adjusting the timetable so that one PC in the family can be used by three siblings. Any pupil can be given support. Individual consultations at some schools also take the form of certain synchronous learning. Weaker pupils stay with the teacher in the online lesson when other pupils have independent work. We also use personal consultations at school. Sometimes cooperation with non-profit organisations is also used, which was relatively intense especially in the spring period of the previous school year. We also use cooperation with Cheiron, which helps us with the distribution of assignments or tutoring. In approximately 10% of basic schools, their management also said they used templates (through the Operational Programme Research, Development and Education) for tutoring. The school also offers tutoring and a reading and logics club – within templates. There is often a wide range of forms of support which the school adapts appropriately. We provide support to pupils with different mother tongues through individual online tutoring with the help of students and teachers on maternity leave who work with teachers. We have made changes in the use of templates in favour of tutoring, involving a school assistant for communication with pupils in Czech. Teaching assistants were used not only for the support provided to pupils with SEN, which is discussed in the following chapter, but also for the overall support for distance learning. Teaching assistants participate in online lessons during distance learning, help teachers organise lessons and attendance records, communicate with both pupils and legal representatives, and provide individual assistance to pupils with SEN. Teaching assistants are used to support pupils who do not catch up in different ways. The teaching assistant is involved in educational activities in the class, supporting not only pupils with SEN, but also others who need it at the moment. A natural positive interaction is built in the class between the teaching assistant and all pupils in the class. Through online learning, the teaching assistant pays individual attention to pupils with a recognised need for support and to others who need the subject matter explained to them again or need to absorb the acquired knowledge better. Teaching assistants are effectively involved in distance learning; under the guidance of teachers, they organise online individual learning and consultations at school not only for pupils in need of support. The specific examples of support provided by teaching assistants in the following illustrations are inspiring. The school assistant successfully helped to manage communication online (for example, with pupils who are ashamed of their different living conditions) – by communicating in pairs until the pupil gained confidence and engaged in online learning with other classmates. Effective involvement of the teaching assistant in education (after a joint introduction, she disconnected along with one pupil to work independently for about 15 minutes). For a time a group of weaker pupils from one village was visited in their homes by the teaching assistant to help them with learning. The importance of the class teacher is especially evident at the 2nd stage of basic schools and in upper secondary schools, where the class teacher is often a key intermediary for involving pupils in regular learning and an important person if there is any problem during distance learning. It is a positive finding that since the spring of 2020 the proportion of class teachers who have succeeded in fulfilling their role to a greater extent has increased. Unfortunately, in upper secondary schools, where the role of the class