I anticipate further but unpredictable developments in the next few days and will update these as appropriate, with a reference at the beginning of the article (16/12).
The BBC has an excellent description of the chaos that is following the latest government knee jerk reactions to the beginning of a surge in Coronavirus cases. This particular U-Turn totally wipes out any rationale for the threats this week of legal action against schools and Local Authorities for closing schools early, and the issuing of fines to parents for keeping their children at home either through fear or to do their best to keep coronavirus free for Christmas. I cannot imagine what school leaders are going through as they grapple with the consequences over the 'holiday' (18/12).
Mass testing updates below (17/12, 18/12).
By the time you read this, it will be out of date, as headteachers and Local Authorities grapple with a rapidly changing situation in wider society and their own schools. Large numbers of staff and pupils are often absent for periods sometimes repeatedly, either with covid itself or self-isolating. Decisions are made in the spotlight with parts of society, including government, very ready to blame schools for decisions at variance with their own ideas, and now controlling media.
The Secretary of State for Education, in spite of his failures during the year, seeks ever tighter control of schools and has introduced new coronavirus related legislation, including the Temporary Continuity Direction. This enables him to force schools to remain open, yet another potential breakdown in relationships and trust and has enabled him to require Greenwich Council to backtrack on its decision to advise all local schools to close for the last four days of term. Islington and Waltham Forest councils have also told schools to move to remote learning and have been sent warning letters from the Department for Education, with the TCD to follow if they do not comply.
Quite understandably the government is concerned about the effect of a fractured attendance pattern on children’s education and mental health, over the past nine months and into the indeterminate future. Unfortunately, it has forgotten three important lessons which should have been learned. Firstly that local situations are usually best delegated to local people, secondly that in a rapidly changing scene, rigid policies can be heavily wrongfooted, and thirdly that the Education Department has a track record of getting it wrong.
The latest attendance figures released by the Department of Education show a frightening decline in attendance figures for last week, with just 55% of secondary aged pupils in Kent and 53% in Medway attending school according to the BBC, with primary attendance around 75%. An increasing number of schools have been forced to close through lack of staff able to attend. Whilst a major part of the absence is likely to be a direct consequence of coronavirus, many families are frightened whilst others are sensibly withdrawing their children from school early to give them a chance of a Covid free Christmas, some of whom have then been threatened with fines for non-attendance. There is nothing like goodwill at Christmas!
All these issues are trumped by what is a sensible government decision to place the whole of Kent and Medway into Tier Three. The latest coronavirus figures show an alarming increase in those parts of the county which previously argued they should be exempt, with the county’s hospitals at the point of saturation.
Let me be clear. I don’t envy any decision-maker in this complex and dangerous time for our population and especially our children, with unpredictable consequences and developing situations quickly blowing decisions off course. Two new factors are the variant of coronavirus, especially prevalent in this part of the country, and early results from the mass testing of local secondary school pupils. These are already revealing a large number of children being tested positive, but who were previously undetected because they were asymptomatic. The consequences of this, combined with a relaxation of rules over Christmas, make any planning for January highly speculative.
Schools have been given permission to close a day early before the last day of the term, which is on Friday for most Kent children. Contrary to some hostile media claims, this is not to give teachers an early holiday, but to ensure that any late cases identified in school can be followed up before Christmas Eve. Sadly too many commentators with no experience of the realities of the current challenges in schools, are quick to criticise those very teachers, such as the one I heard of today who, whilst teaching a partial class, was simultaneously running two distinct online sessions for absentees. Headteachers are carrying an immense and complex load, planning, revising plans following staff absence, coping with the mass of instructions coming down from government and the Local Authority too often on a daily basis, many having worked a seven day week for months, and some operating all this from home because of self-isolation or having contracted the disease themselves.
Detailed Attendance Figures for
The website Schools Weekly has published a handy seven point guide for this process, which includes details of a government clampdown on release of information or comment to the media, surely another nail in the coffin of trust: schools are asked to let the Department for Health and Social Care mass testing communications team know if they would like to “invite media, distribute press releases or conduct photography and filming on-site for external communications purposes. They should also 'give a minimum of seven days’ notice for media communication about, including press notices or media visits'.
| We request your urgent attention to develop a more flexible range of solutions to exams which can be applied in different ways to different areas of the country, and which reflect and take account of the fact that some children in some areas have suffered significantly greater loss of learning opportunities than others . Without this there is a risk that some young people in areas of high infection and regular school closures will simply give up, not able to see how they have any hope of succeeding in the exams when they have missed so much, especially if they suffer further interruption to study in the spring season. |
There is no doubt that this has been a dreadful year for the education, mental health and future prospects of so many children in Kent and Medway, especially the most disadvantaged, with the New Year boding even worse if the spread of coronavirus amongst young people is as fierce as some anticipate. Nevertheless, it would be remiss of me if I did not thank on your behalf every teacher and headteacher for what have been superhuman efforts by so many to do the best they could for the children under their care this year. I wish them all and yourselves a very Happy Christmas and a good opportunity to recharge your batteries over the holiday period. |