Estyn to look at how schools have coped with virus

SCHOOL inspectorate Estyn will publish a report in the autumn looking at the work of schools during the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on pupils’ wellbeing and learning.

When schools shut suddenly in March, on-site Estyn inspections halted too. Even before coronavirus struck, this term was meant to be the last term of inspections as usual across Wales for a year as Estyn had been preparing to embark on major changes in any case.

The usual inspections were to be halted for a year from September 2020 to allow schools breathing space as they work towards introducing the new curriculum in Wales.

Estyn would have kept in touch with them to discuss how plans for the new curriculum are going. That won’t happen now.

Instead, Estyn will halt inspections to ask schools and pupil referral units (PRUs) how they are working in the new world of “blended” learning at home and school.

“Instead of focusing on how prepared schools are for the curriculum, we’ll initially be finding out about the impact the current crisis has had on the wellbeing and learning of their pupils and on their future plans,” chief inspector of schools in Wales Meilyr Rowlands said.

While Education Minister Kirsty Williams has confirmed the new curriculum will go ahead on schedule, despite calls by some to delay it while staff tackle the changes wrought by coronavirus, Estyn must turn its attention to schools’ work in lockdown and blended learning at home and in the classroom.

From September, inspectors will talk to schools by phone and in virtual meetings to look at how they are coping in the “new normal”, with an emphasis on pupil and staff wellbeing. They have already begun to do that this term to some extent.

Estyn said it will publish a report in the autumn covering the national picture drawing on engagement it has had with schools during the pandemic and its impact on pupils’ wellbeing and learning.

The chief inspector’s annual report 2019-20 will be published in December and will also report on the educational response to the pandemic.

Mr Rowlands said he recognised it has been an “anxious time” for learners, parents, and school staff.

“Our main priority at the moment is the wellbeing of learners, staff, and the community, and over the past few months our inspectors have been speaking to head teachers and governors across Wales to listen to their views and concerns.

“We’ve also been supporting schools and pupil referral units (PRUs) by working closely with local authorities, consortia, and the Welsh Government to develop advice and guidance on school business and continuing learning for children and young people.

“We’re sticking to the plan we made before the pandemic to engage with all schools and PRUs from September for a year rather than inspecting a sample of schools.

“But instead of focusing on how prepared schools are for the curriculum we’ll initially be finding out about the impact the current crisis has had on the wellbeing and learning of their pupils and on their future plans.

“Our overriding aim as an inspectorate now is to support the Welsh education system and to provide government ministers with independent and objective evidence and advice.

“We will continue to keep in touch with providers remotely while they are physically closed for education.

“We will not inspect maintained schools next academic year. Instead, after a suitable period for readjustment, inspectors will visit schools to listen to concerns and to identify what is working well.

“The purpose of our current conversations with schools and these future engagement visits is to gain a national picture and not to judge the approaches of individual schools, to gather intelligence on the education system as a whole, and to gauge the immediate and longer-term impact of the coronavirus crisis on learning and on the wellbeing of pupils and staff.