Mixed messages and public rows that left parents confused over schools’ reopening

As schools reopen their doors today after three months of lockdown, education editor Abbie Wightwick looks back at the often tumultuous journey that has led to the return of children to Wales’ classrooms

WHEN Education Minister Kirsty Williams, below, took the podium at the Welsh Government’s daily coronavirus briefing on June 3 to reveal schools in Wales would reopen she could not have envisaged the full fallout from the bombshell announcement.

Since March, when schools were ordered to shut, parents, teachers and politicians have been forced to think on the hoof as uncertainty reigned locally, nationally and globally.

In the early stages of the pandemic, and going into June, indications pointed to Wales taking a more cautious approach to easing lockdown and the key move of re-opening schools.

All that changed on June 29.

The public fallout had left parents angry and confused, with some saying they feel like their children are being used as guinea pigs.

Schools in England had opened two days earlier, but only to certain year groups. Ms Williams went further.

Pupils would return in phases from June 29 and be expected to be able to go to school, for what was described as a “catch up” and “check in” at least three times before term ended. And term would be extended.

Instead of schools breaking up for the summer holidays on June 17 Kirsty Williams said her “proposal” was for them to stay an extra week until July 24 to help children who had been away so long.

In return the autumn term half term would be lengthened from the traditional one week to two.

Making the announcement the minister made few preliminaries. Perhaps she was bracing for the fallout. From the outside, there appeared to be little time to digest what appeared to be a significant change in direction.

The minister’s embargoed statement had been released to the media, teaching unions and other interested parties shortly before the announcement.

The plan that all but shielding pupils could return to school was a “shock” and “surprise” to stunned union officials who had been involved in talks with the minister on how to re-open schools safely.

The announcement was news to them, they claimed.

While the Association of School and College Leaders Cymru welcomed the statement, unions did not.

At no point had that plan been on the table, they later said. The National Education Union stated it had always favoured a September return. Unison put out a statement saying its members, mostly support staff, did not think it was safe to return on June 29. Announcing staff would have to work the first week of what should have been their holiday was not only controversial, but complex to agree contractually. Those hearing Ms Williams announce her proposal to extend the summer term by a week and lengthen autumn half term in return, could have been forgiven for assuming that she had checked this could be done and agreed.

Two weeks later, on June 19, this turned out not to be the case when most of Wales’ 22 local councils, which employ teachers, told their schools they could not open for an extra fourth week.

But in the immediate fallout from the minister’s announcement that pupils could return from June 29 the issue of whether schools would open for three or four weeks had not been raised by councils.

And it was overshadowed by an even bigger controversy.

Within 24 hours of the minister saying schools could re-open on June 29, Wales’ Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Frank Atherton said the decision was not his “preferred option”.

At the Welsh Government briefing on June 4, Dr Atherton said his preferred option would be for schools to reopen in August.

Dr Atherton chose to reveal this during a press conference the day after Kirsty Williams’ announcement.

June, Dr Atherton said, was the “second-best option”, before adding: “When I was discussing this with the Education Minister my preferred option would have been to reopen the schools perhaps towards the end of the summer in August to give us a little bit more time.

“I understand that was not attractive to the unions.”

Dr Atherton exposed the minister and dragged teaching unions publicly into the fray, sparking a row with the unions which she and the Welsh Government had presumably been keen to avoid.

The CMO’s action highlighted how, once again, a key part of the schools re-opening announcement had not apparently been agreed with all parties.

If Dr Atherton had intended to blame the unions and not the minister, he made a mess of it. Clearly discussions on such an important issue had not gone well and it could not reflect well on anyone that he chose to reveal that.

The next day First Minister Mark Drakeford came to his minister’s defence, stating that June was just as safe as August.

“This is not a choice between doing a safe thing and doing an unsafe thing. It was a choice about how we re-open our schools and doing it with safety first all along,” he told the daily briefing on June 5.

Who should the public believe? Was the government “following the science” as its ministers had kept repeating?

Kirsty Williams responded by issuing a statement on Twitter denying she had acted against scientific advice in making her announcement that all year groups would return on June 29.

“The decision to enable children to have some time in school ahead of the summer break puts the safety and wellbeing of learners first and foremost and is fully in line with the scientific advice,” the statement said.

“We also explored reopening schools later in the summer but this would have involved a complete structural change to the school year.

“Both approaches were fully endorsed by the Chief Medical Officer for Wales and the Wales Covid-19