Parents call for full reopening of schools

● Rising number of parents cite low risk as reason to reopen schools fully and early

Highland Council bosses yesterday outlined their programme to tackle the phased return of the region’s children to school in August – but a call is gaining traction among parents for schools to acknowledge the low risks and reopen fully.

Education boss Paul Senior has put in place 11 sub-groups to work on the complex logistics involved in complying with Scottish Government guidance on social distancing.

He has also detailed his aspirations for a 50-50 split for pupils between school and home learning.

Mr Senior, who is interim executive chief officer for education and learning, said: “Wellbeing and safety is a top priority for all our children, staff and communities.

“We will continue to work with our key partners, stakeholders and providers to ensure our educational settings are safe and positioned to provide the best possible learning and teaching experiences for our children and young people.”

But Highland Parent Council Partnership (HPCP) acting chairman Mark Gunn said many parents would welcome either full or at least maximised reopening in August.

Mr Gunn said the parents expressed this view to Deputy First Minister John Swinney in an online discussion earlier this week.

He said: “Given the low, or no, incidence of Covid in many parts of the Highlands, and children as a lowrisk group, is there really much risk in reopening schools fully?

“Parents and pupils who have genuine concerns about it should have an option to be more cautious and still be educated/supported.

“We want our children properly educated and the deficit arising from March to June recovered as quickly as possible.”

Mr Gunn, a retired RAF officer, said parents were not prepared or trained to be able to cope with longer-term home learning.

“Children could lose an entire year of schooling,” he said.

“Part-time return will create problems for working parents, some of whom have children at two or three different schools.”

Education committee chairman John Finlayson said he was aware Highland parents have been contacting the Scottish Government about a full return.

Mr Finlayson said: “Like every local authority, we are operating under national guidance and sticking to twometre social distancing.

“You can have local variations in terms of the amount of time young people are in school because of the different environment and circumstances and we will be in the position in some small schools to return the pupils 100%.

“If we had that potential for real variation, as a council we would embrace it.”

Mr Finlayson flagged up one of the biggest headaches ahead – the need for schools to prepare for a possible

Scottish Government announcement of a relaxing of the two-metre rule to one metre.

In many schools this would mean the difference between one third of the school returning, and one half.

He said: “The first minister is expected to review the guidance at the beginning of July.

“If that’s the case, that would be the day before the schools go on holiday.

“To ask us all to scenario-plan around two metres and then tell us the day before the school closes that they are changing the rules would not be helpful.”

Mr Finlayson said parents’ agendas had switched in the past few days from health to education.

“While previously every parent was focused on the health agenda, now some of the worries are less around the spread of Covid and more around the education of their children,” he said,

“I think a lot of parents are of the opinion we need to maybe be not quite as cautious as the Scottish Government is being. Individual authority flexibility should be something that’s considered, but at the moment we are complying with the Scottish Government guidance.”

The Scottish Government was contacted for comment.

Photograph by Sandy McCook CONCERN: Mark Gunn argued parents are not ideally qualified to provide long-term home schooling of their kids.