Bennett’s blog – #4 Are we nearly there yet? When and how will we get back to school?
Author
Carole Bennett, Trust Leader
If you are anything like me, you are dreaming of normality right now. Whether you are a parent yearning for your children to be back at school, or a teacher wanting to get back to working with your class, we are all remembering how it used to be. And dreaming of getting back to how things were before.
I, like many of you, keep talking about ‘when this is over’ with excitement, and watched (and ‘liked’) the video of the babies hugging each other on Facebook – like we would do after lockdown:
And I really, really want it to be like that. But. You will know about the ‘glass half full/half empty’ question? I have always said that I am a bit more pragmatic than either optimistic or pessimistic. I see a glass, and I see a glass with some water in it. And because of that, I have to say that I don’t think we will go back to ‘normal’ for a very long time, if ever. I just can’t see that there is a single date set by the Dept for Education and we all go back to school just like we did before, whether that be May, June or Sept.
A pandemic is a major life event, which affects society, the economy, education – and our behaviours. Not just for the short term. And I am watching the return to education in other schools around the world with interest, to see both how they are approaching it – and what we can learn.
Looking at the data, the virus is not going to vanish overnight. Spanish Flu had several peaks, as do most viruses. So the idea that we all go back and carry on as normal soon is looking unlikely – especially when we have no effective vaccine and patchy understanding of treatments.
Schools are being asked to ‘socially distance’ in most countries. Which means that not every child goes back together – schools just don’t have the physical space to do that. So I am guessing we will have to target year groups and phase returns, either by priority (Y10?), day by day, or alternating attendance. Given that many teachers are in vulnerable medical groups, we also have to presume that this will be necessary – some of our workforce are in protected groups and so we won’t be fully staffed for some time.
So I can only imagine that we will go slowly back, rather than have a binary in/out approach that the media suggests.
Longer term, we also have to look at what history tells us about worldwide trauma. History has never been just the study of the past; it is also about learning lessons to help us move forward more effectively. Worldwide or national events like this do tend to change society forever. After World War II, women did begin to stay at work, having had the experience of doing so when they were needed to. So we can only begin to guess about the long term changes from COVID-19. Will wearing masks during illness become a norm? Will schools become more focussed on delivering and measuring learning in remote ways? Will we change how we measure pupils progress – moving from exams to teacher assessment, as we did in 2020? We can’t know yet. But we will find out. And what I do hope is that schools are able to retain their role as a community hub, supporting families in a more holistic way and helping education be less of an ‘in school’ phenomena. If this is how we change, then the way we are monitored would need to change too.
We are in interesting times, and I am sure this is a defining moment in our society. How we will change, no-one knows. But I do think that, unfortunately, hugging each other on the 1st May/June and all carrying on as before is not an option. Let’s hope we use our learning to redefine who we are, how we work – and continue to evolve the view of learning as a long term, no limits endeavour.
And finally. For anyone who is worried about the return – a commitment. As a Trust, we care deeply for the safety of every single child and every adult in our community. We will always make sure that we place the safety and long term flourishing of our humans at the heart of any decision we make about how and when we go back to school. Because every single one of you is unique, treasured and special to us.
So are we nearly there yet? In lots of ways – I have no idea. No-one knows yet. But one thing is certain. Our values are clear. And they inform where we will go on our journey together.