Announcement is a huge boost
One of the biggest disruptions that this pandemic has caused to daily life must be, without a doubt, the impact that it has had on our schools - the people who work in them, the pupils who should be getting taught in them, and the parents and guardians of those pupils.
As what should have been the last full week of the summer term comes to a close, that will have been felt more keenly than ever. End of term parties and proms, graduation ceremonies and prize givings, sports days and school dances, tie ceremonies and leavers’ hoodies.
Every school has its own traditions and they are important landmarks at the end of the school year so it has been really hard to see all that put aside and I feel particularly for those pupils in transition years, those making the step from primary to secondary and those coming to the end of their school journey.
I know that schools have done what they can to mark as many of those milestones as possible in some way, whether through online events or socially distanced pick up of graduation packs, and all the school staff who have been involved in innovating and delivering those alternative routes are to be thanked and applauded for all of their efforts.
I know, too, that many parents were extremely concerned to receive this week notification of the council’s plans for blended learning and the prospect of having to supervise home learning while finding child care solutions that would allow them to get back to work might have seemed like a bit of a nightmare.
I am sure that many will have breathed a massive sigh of relief when John Swinney announced plans to parliament for schools in Scotland to return full-time in August.
It is because of the way in which people in Perth and Kinross and across Scotland have pulled together – by keeping apart – that we have got to this stage.
By following the advice from the Scottish Government we are now at the stage where substantial and sufficient progress has been made in the fight against COVID-19.
So, schools will return full-time in August - if we continue to follow the guidance and if Scotland continues to make progress on suppressing coronavirus.
There are, of course, two ‘if’s in that sentence. And they are pretty big and important ones.
There will be people – teachers and other schools staff amongst them, no doubt - who will be concerned that such a return to full-time un-distanced school attendance is too much, too soon, or that all the hard work they have done preparing for the possibility of blended learning has been wasted effort.
I want to send my gratitude to the amazing teachers and school staff in Perthshire South and Kinross-shire who have done so much in helping us get to this stage and assure them that this stage has to be achieved safely.
And so it inevitably remains conditional and dependent on on-going scientific and health advice.
I would certainly urge everyone to read the full text of John’s statement – it is available in the online version of the Scottish Parliament’s official report.
Keep safe and let’s keep working together to make this progress through the phases out of lockdown happen as quickly as possible.