Date: 28/01/21

By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

I’m sure that all of us have struggled with the uncertainty of when we will begin to move out of lockdown. With the impact of the pandemic worse now than during the first lockdown, I don’t think that anyone will be too surprised that schools will not fully reopen after February half-term. Even the new target date for reopening of 8th March is conditional on vaccination targets being met and hospital cases reducing. However it does give us the hope that we can at least extend opening then and take the first steps towards having all of our pupils back in school.

Although we will need to wait until February 22nd for the government to confirm their plans, rest assured that our schools are already preparing for a smooth return to school for our pupils and supporting them with catching up. This won’t be an overnight thing, but the curriculum will be carefully planned to balance consolidation of work set during lockdown along with introducing new content.

Catching up to where pupils would be if schools had remained open as normal may seem daunting, but it can be done. During my career, I’ve had the privilege of teaching a number of pupils who have missed very significant periods of school, which could have made a huge impact on their results. In some cases this was for severe and life threatening illnesses, for others it was arriving in the country as a refugee or asylum seeker. For some pupils this meant missing school entirely for over a year, as well as coping with the trauma of war and having to quickly learn or improve their English. Not only did these pupils catch up, many achieved even better results than they had hoped for.

This experience taught me that it is possible to rapidly catch up with missing work and get to where you want to be with determination, commitment and focus. The support and encouragement of family also makes a huge difference to the ability of children to make rapid progress. One of the few positives of Covid-19 and ‘home school’ is the great engagement and support from our families and the way they have worked with our schools to support their child’s learning.

I very much hope that the return planned for March 8th will be for all of our pupils in each school, but it is possible that it may be a phased return. If we look at how this was managed at the end of the last lockdown, the government priorities were Key Stage 1 and Year 6. With the uncertainty around how exam grades will be awarded this year, I would image that Years 11 and 13 will be prioritised at the end of this lockdown. Schools are in a much more difficult position than last year for teacher assessment, as last year’s exam groups had completed most of their courses and we had lots of assessment data, such as mock exam results.

The present Year 11 and 13 pupil have missed so much more time in school, covered less content and have experienced far fewer assessments. The current proposals for awarding grades include the use of some nationally agreed ‘mini-exams’ so it is vital that we get our pupils back in school as quickly as possible so that they are properly prepared for any assessments.

For all of our pupils, no one underestimates the impact that the pandemic could have on their education and their future prospects, but it is in all of our hands to ensure that this isn’t the same as the impact that it will have. This goes back to having the determination, commitment and focus I mentioned earlier. In a month which has seen a change of President in the USA, it’s worth remembering the words of one of the greatest Presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt: “If we attack our problems with determination, we shall succeed.”