‘It’s a chance to place kids at the centre of education’
Lauren Harte speaks to local school leaders about the challenges of 2020 and their hopes for the coming year
If 2020 was a year of uncertainty and upheaval for students, 2021 could be a year of optimism and opportunity.
That is the message from school leaders at the start of the new year after one of the most challenging and disruptive 12 months in living memory, caused by the Covid pandemic.
Schools were closed to pupils from mid-march until late August, and GCSE, AS and A-level exams were cancelled during the summer.
Many students missed out on class after schools reopened because they had to self-isolate after being identified as a contact of a positive Covid-19 case.
Just as the year ended, some post-primary pupils learned that they were set to move to remote learning for a period during the end of January.
Dr Graham Gault, president of the National Association of Head Teachers (NI), said the Covid-19 pandemic had encouraged school leaders to look under the bonnet of the wider structures of the education system, a process that revealed several significant deficiencies where systemic considerations seemingly outweigh the needs of the children.
“Examinations, transfer tests, contradictory guidance, U-turns on advice to schools, poor quality of support for beleaguered school leaders and the disturbing lack of understanding of schools as live organisations are but a few examples which have demonstrated a very limited empathy and flexibility to reflect the lived experience of the children the adults in schools,” he added.
“Like all practitioners, I am eager to move beyond the pandemic and get to the long-sought review of our education system.
“If the child-focused educators that we have in our schools are given the scope to contribute to this review — and it is critically important that they are — we will have an opportunity to recreate our system with the child truly at the centre.”
“Before we get there, though, we need a distinct move from our Department of Education to begin to close the gaps between the policy-making bodies and the school-based professions, which have been developing unchecked for many years and have been exposed so destructively during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
For Neil Mcclements, head teacher of Rainey Endowed School in Magherafelt, it has been a case of sink or swim over the past few months.
“The main challenge for 2021 will remain unchanged from March 2020: keeping the school open and providing a strong academic provision, enriched by a wide variety of extra-curricular activities which naturally blend with the wider school community,” he said.
Given that pupils thrive on extra-curricular engagement, Mr Mcclements is also looking forward to a huge number of clubs and societies returning to normal operation.
“These have been greatly missed by both students and staff, and the lack of their provision has undoubtedly had a detrimental impact on the pupil’s mental wellbeing,” he said.
“Moving forward, the challenge is to accept that a return to normal may take a few years.
“However, as educators, teachers are extremely resilient, adaptable, flexible and, above all, extremely professional.
“(They will be) assisting and encouraging every pupil to fulfil his or her potential.”
One thing schools do know is that GCSE and A-level students will sit fewer exams this year after new measures were announced by the Education Minster, Peter Weir.
Students can omit up to 60% of their AS or A-level assessments, meaning that they will only have to sit one exam in a “significant” number of subjects.
The number of exam papers in some GCSE subjects has already been reduced.
Gary Kelly, principal of St Kevin’s College in Lisnaskea, said that for his students, it was a tale of two exam cities.
“The news regarding A and As-levels was extremely welcome, comprehensive and compassionate,” he said.
“I think that many people in education know that examinations are the best method to award grades.
“However, the proof of the pudding will be in the detail and the speed at which schools receive precise guidance on how A-levels will be administered.
“The picture painted regarding GCSES was disappointing. They should be treated with the same compassion as the A-level students.
“GCSE students will face significant stress and upset in the months ahead, especially as English and maths (tests) are scheduled to take place in January.
“If January and beyond is going to be as bad as predicted, I think the GCSE situation will need revisiting.”
Jacquie White, general secretary of the Ulster Teachers’ Union, believes 2021 holds the potential for the beginning of a new epoch in learning.
“Moth-balled from 2020 because of Covid, a review of education this year is a chance to potentially rewrite our educational narrative and some of its most controversial and emotive areas, such as transfer, integration, SEN and educational attainment gaps,” she said.
“Its urgency is highlighted right away with transfer tests happening in January, despite the fact they’re socio-economically divisive — and that’s before you consider the stress to children already upset by Covid.
“The review will also be a chance to investigate the need for our current sectoral model, which an Ulster University report concluded cost up to £95m to maintain, given that the existing entitlement framework already encourages neighbouring schools to share resources regardless of whether they’re controlled, maintained, academically selective or non-selective.”