NOW ALL PUPILS GO BACK TO CLASS
End of home teaching (for now at least!) as secondary schools return after Easter
ALL Scottish secondary school pupils will finally return to the classroom full-time after the Easter holidays.
It follows more than three months of home learning.
Nicola Sturgeon announced yesterday she will go ahead with the final phase of the schools reopening plan, in another major step out of lockdown. It was also confirmed no social distancing will be required between pupils – but schools will be expected to introduce extra measures, such as better ventilation.
With primary pupils already back, secondary pupils will resume fulltime attendance from next Monday, or April 19, depending on local term dates. Those who were shielding will return from April 26. Parent groups welcomed the announcement but called for a commitment that the ‘shocking catalogue of decision-making’ that led to school closures for much of this year, as well as last year, will ‘never be repeated’.
However, teaching unions warned pupils’ return is likely to spark a spate of new Covid outbreaks.
Miss Sturgeon said full-time
schooling would be ‘a huge relief to many children and young people’, as well as parents and carers.
But she acknowledged that it would cause ‘concern and anxiety’ to some pupils, parents and teachers.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘So let me give an assurance that we will continue to give paramount consideration to safety.
‘The return to school will involve, as it did last August, the removal, where necessary, of strict two-metre physical distancing between pupils in secondary school, but we are asking schools to consider how they strengthen other mitigations.
‘For example, we have committed almost £400million of funding to help with education recovery and I know that many councils have been using some of this funding to monitor and improve ventilation in schools.
‘In addition, twice-weekly lateral flow testing is already available for all school staff in primary, secondary and special schools – and also for all secondary school pupils, and I would encourage as many staff and pupils as possible to make use of that testing.’
It comes as the latest figures show that in the week to yesterday, 2,603 people tested positive for the first time – the lowest over a seven-day period since September.
The 196 patients in hospital with the virus is the lowest total since October 3, while there have been no new deaths for five days in a row.
On pupils’ return to school, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: ‘I welcome this, and I think there will be a sense of relief for parents.
‘I know that when I look at my own children’s eyes I see the impact of this lockdown on them, particularly their mental health and wellbeing. We want children back to school but we want to make sure we do it in as safe a way as possible.
‘We also have to think about the workforce in our classrooms and that is why again I would say, now we have a ramping up of the vaccine supply, we should be looking at rolling out those vaccines for teachers to give them a sense of confidence, and to pupils and parents.’
Jo Bisset, organiser for the UsForThem Scotland parents’ group, said: ‘Parents and pupils will be relieved at the full resumption of school, but politicians from all parties need to commit that this shocking catalogue of decision-making will never be repeated. Children have suffered more than anyone in the last year, and the failure to keep schools open throughout is one of the main reasons.’
Miss Sturgeon said there will be ‘no requirement’ for prelims or exams to work out pupil grades after fears youngsters will sit exams ‘in all but name’.
She said: ‘The awarding of qualifications for this year will be based on teacher judgment of evidence of the attainment of each learner, so it won’t be based on past results and it won’t be based on an algorithm, which caused all of the problems last year.’
She added: ‘A lot of young people have raised concerns about whether they are effectively going to need to do something that replicated a full formal exam.
‘There is no requirement to replicate a full exam or a prelim this year – teacher judgment is at the centre of this.’
Further measures to ensure pupils can appeal against grades they are given are being worked on, she said.
Scottish Tory education spokesman Jamie Greene said: ‘Confirmation that nearly all pupils will be back in the classroom after the Easter break is welcome, although they could have safely returned earlier and less face-to-face learning time would have been missed.
‘The last thing pupils and teachers need is more confusion and mixed messages about what is expected of them.’
He added: ‘After last year’s exams fiasco, it would be unforgivable if the SNP passed the buck again and damaged the future prospects of our young people.’
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS teaching union, said: ‘The full return of pupils needs to be treated with great caution. It will undoubtedly lead to an increase in school Covid outbreaks, which will require to be dealt with quickly.’
He added: ‘If we had made more progress on the EIS demands of ventilation, vaccination and masks, we would be in a stronger position. Improving such mitigations is still possible.
‘Notwithstanding their concerns, however, teachers will be keen to engage positively with pupils to support their wellbeing and progress in learning.’
The gradual amble back to normality continues. The First Minister confirms that all secondary pupils will return to school after the easter break, save for those in the ‘shielding’ category.
Physical distancing rules will be relaxed to accommodate classroom-based learning but students must wear masks at all times.
This is welcome news. One of the most insidious harms of the past year has been that done to children’s education.
Keeping them indoors, away from their teachers and distant from their friends will have long-term consequences, not least on children who were already struggling before the pandemic came along.
More than 2.5million Scots have now received their first Covid jab, while almost 500,000 have been given their second.
This progress highlights the virtue of being a part of the UK, a country with deep pockets and wide connections. If Scotland was an independent country, we would still be waiting in the queue alongside France, Germany and the other EU nations.
however, the success of the vaccine programme raises questions about next steps. The First Minister said we should not ‘close our minds’ to the notion of a ‘vaccine passport’.
While acknowledging the ‘challenges’ and ‘the practical and ethical issues’, she said: ‘We all want to get back to normal, so anything that can play a part in getting us back to normal is something we should think about very carefully.’
We should think very carefully indeed. We have sacrificed a great many liberties while fighting the pandemic but there are very real concerns across the political spectrum about what might amount to a medicalised version of ID cards.
Of course, there is always a case for pragmatism, but any passport scheme would have to weigh up the benefits against the risks to our medical privacy and freedom of movement.
One area where we sorely need to pick up the pace is in the economy. Businesses are crying out for support and for certainty.
A route map, however rough, for what ministers plan to do would make it easier to organise, order and recruit.
Businesses do not ask for much and do not get much, from this Government at least. Not for them the election-timed bumper pay offers made to the public sector. All they want, first and foremost, is to know ministers are listening to them and understand the pressures they face.
It is simply not clear that ministers do – and that is damning. Recovering from the pandemic is just as important as managing it. The Scottish Government must bring forward a convincing strategy for getting us back to work, back out shopping and back generating prosperity.
The amble must become a sprint.