SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
IF YOU wear glasses, you’ve probably spent a good proportion of the last few months in a foggy haze. The face maskspectacles combo has been a headache for lots of us.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to take off my glasses just to be able to see in public. Every trick in the book has been deployed, including putting doublesided sticky tape on the inside of masks to stop air escaping.
But for many young people, the issue is not about coping with steamy glasses during a pandemic. It’s about not realising you need to wear them in the first place.
Now a £1 million study has been looking at the link between sight problems and children’s difficulties with reading and maths. Pupils in 100 schools across Bradford have been trialling the ‘glasses in classes’ scheme. Overseen by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), early results are encouraging.
In the UK, it’s recommended that all pupils in reception receive an eye test. Roughly 10 to 15 per cent of children fail these tests, yet a third of them are not taken to the optician to get glasses. And crucially, schools aren’t informed of the results. Many pupils have their visual problems untreated throughout their education and teachers can misdiagnose why they are struggling in class.
The data has shown 2,500 children across Bradford alone were previously not getting the glasses they needed.
Now the EEF pilot has involved sharing the eye test results with schools and parents. Each school has also appointed a ‘vision co-ordinator’ to manage the relationship between the school, families, opticians and health services. It has increased take-up of wearing glasses significantly. Families get two free pairs – the spare one is kept in school in case the pupil forgets their main pair.
Education minister Michelle Donelan is one of those keenly eyeing up the success of the trial. She says it is already having an impact on literacy levels, although the evaluation report won’t be out until this summer. “In the coming months, we hope to expand the programme to five more areas, reaching 1,000 more pupils,” she added.
So what’s her interest? Michelle is the minister responsible for the Government’s opportunity area (OA) programme. Bradford is one of 12 areas to be awarded OA status and the glasses project is being supported through its Government funding allocation.
Stoke-on-trent is also at the forefront of the OA programme and has been testing out lots of interesting ideas itself. Now Michelle has revealed she’s keen to see some of the Potteries’ work expanded to other areas too.
It includes a project focusing on support for further education students in Stoke-on-trent who are showing signs of ‘lower level’ mental health issues. Through intervening and offering earlier help, it’s meant the number of students needing to be referred for formal counselling has fallen from 495 in 2018/19 to just 142 in 2019/20.
The scheme has been highlighted in a new briefing paper drawn up by the
‘ The £90 million Opportunity Area programme is expensive... but if children can have CONFIDENCE IN reading it’s got to be worth it
’minister for the House of Commons’ education select committee. Other Oasupported trials that could also be taken up more widely include work to improve teacher recruitment.
On North Yorkshire’s coast, for instance, the recruitment is now overseen by a central team. OA funding has paid for a marketing campaign to promote the area as a great place to live and work. Financial incentives have been offered for some hardto-fill posts, such as English Baccalaureate subjects and primary school leadership.
The national opportunity area programme has been an expensive experiment, with £90 million invested in the 12 OAS between 2017 and 2021. But like the ‘glasses in classes’ scheme, that initial cost could save considerable expense further down the line. The impact on an individual pupil can also be dramatic.
If it means pupils can have confidence in reading as they can see more clearly, it’s got to be worth it. Just watch out for those face masks.