Teachers have been class acts
During the pandemic teachers have gone above and beyond to make sure their pupils receive the best education possible in difficult circumstances.
Their workloads have increased as staff absences have gone up and they often find themselves navigating new COVID policies and protocols with minimal support.
For example, schools currently perform contact tracing. We know that there have been outbreaks in classes in Perthshire and neighbouring areas and teachers’role in contact tracing when this occurs has been vital.
I’ve been speaking to headteachers who have delivered this work when a case emerges in a school and it’s clear they’re carrying a heavy burden.
One told me that to deal with a single positive COVID case in her school took from 9.30am in the morning to 4.30pm in the afternoon.
That’s almost an entire working day lost to the necessary but timeconsuming administration that goes hand in hand with COVD cases.
It’s entirely possible that contact tracing will have to be done on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day since schools in Perthshire and most other local authorities, only wrap up on December 23.
Perth and Kinross Council have confirmed that it won’t require teachers to take part in contact tracing on those days.
That’s a welcome move from the local authority for teachers, but it means the on-call contact tracing teams will miss out on the front-line knowledge of the schools that the Scottish Government insists is so important for the system to work optimally.
No-one wants to phone dozens of families at Christmas to tell them they need to go instantly into self-isolation. Families are making preparations to go into close bubbles in an attempt to minimise the risk of spreading COVID.
Although the risk of infection and transmission in schools is low, it is an unnecessary risk to be taking right now to keep schools open.
The days leading up to the festive break are never the most productive time for learning and any last minute pieces of course work could be done online.
In England, the decision has been made to bring forward the school holidays to the 18th.
That extra week buffer that England has decided to adopt, alongside other countries in Europe who are implementing an early break, would lessen the risk of contact tracing having to be done over the Christmas period itself.
Given the year teachers and pupils have had, a proper Christmas break shouldn’t be treated as an optional luxury but as essential.
This isn’t just about a break though, the burden of administering contact tracing is clearly placing demands on staff time that would otherwise be spent wrapping up this terms’work and planning for the New Year.
We’re making such good progress towards beating this coronavirus and once we have it’s essential we learn lessons from 2020 and not forget those who helped us through it. Teachers and school staff are committed to the education and wellbeing of our children.
When they raise concerns, we should listen to them.
Kilgraston pupils outside the equestrian centre