Delegates at this year's Schools North East Curriculum Conference tuned in to see the Government’s ‘Recovery Tsar’ Sir Kevan Collins outline his thoughts on how schools can recover from the impact of the pandemic, stressing that a swift, sustained, properly funded response was vital.
Sir Kevan addressed over 600 school staff and colleagues from across the country as part of a panel of NE school leaders debating how best schools can move forward from the pandemic. Despite acknowledging that the terms ‘recovery’ and ‘catch up’ may not be the right ones to use, Sir Kevan emphasised the importance of striking now in regard to a ‘recovery plan’, as a return to ‘normal’ will not happen naturally or automatically; far from it, as attainment deficits will ‘compound if left to themselves’.
Sir Kevan’s data found that those students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds have suffered the greatest as a result of the pandemic, something which Schools North East has constantly highlighted throughout the crisis and which was supported by the analysis of the National Audit Office report. Sir Kevan reflected on data from the learning loss caused as a result of Hurricane Katrina, where students in New Orleans were believed to have lost six months of learning and took four years to fully recover.
Sir Kevan made it very clear that the catch up plan must be school-led in order for it to be successfully implemented across a national landscape that is now far more diverse and complex than ever before. A top-down approach has a large failure potential due to the huge distance between the Government and those working at the chalkface in regards to the understanding of children's needs. Schools North East has been pushing for this contextualised and school-led approach for some time now within our Manifesto for Education which has called for a focus on a joined up approach between schools with minimal Government interference.
Sir Kevan stressed that ‘recovery’ will take a long time and that any plan must contain both a ‘sense of urgency’ and also the understanding and will that this must be sustained for at least 4+ years. No-one should underestimate the scale of the impact of the pandemic, or the profound shock this impact has caused within communities and their schools. The will to sustain a ‘recovery’ plan must also include the will to adequately fund it, citing potential losses to the nation’s economy of up to £100Bn if we do not adequately invest in our schools and their children. The Netherlands has allocated 8Bn euros to their education recovery plan, the US has allocated $130BN to theirs, it is imperative that the government match resources to the size of the task at hand. The currently allocated £1.7Bn in England is entirely insufficient.
Coupled with this acknowledgement of school-led, well funded recovery, Sir Kevan also stressed the need for accountability as well, that money cannot just be handed over to schools and then forgotten. However, this accountability must be ‘intellectually curious’ and avoid ‘the complacency of certainty’, with Sir Kevan urging government and schools to critically assess what works, ditching what doesn’t, and ensuring that their approach to recovery evolves as we find out more and more about what the actual problems are and what is effective in dealing with them. This is a far cry from the historic ‘deficit’ model of school accountability.
CEO of SMART academy trust Colin Lofthouse who was also a member on the panel said: “There should be a great deal of optimism about the potential impact of the Commissioner for Educational Recovery. Sir Kevan is proving that he will listen to school leaders and knows the value of putting the decision making about how resources should be used in the hands of local leaders, with a clear focus on helping the regions most disadvantaged pupils from falling further behind due to the Covid disruption.”
Another who felt positive about Sir Kevan’s vision was Head Teacher of St John Vianney RC Primary in Hartlepool and Chair of Schools North East, John Hardy: “In response to a very wide range of ‘lived experience’ from the panel, related to the consequences for children, families, schools and communities of the Health Emergency, Kevan showed a level of awareness of the need to think more widely than academic progress. His 4 year timescale of re-building seems considered and realistic. His acknowledgement that we don’t want to return to normal but rather to emerge from the ashes into a better, future-focused and responsive education system that better meets the needs of children, young people who may have ‘missed-out’ and need access to learning later and the country as a whole in our post-Brexit, post-Covid world.”
The ‘Recovery Tsar’s’ main messages also resonated with many school leaders in the audience. Maura Regan who was a member of the panel session and is CEO at Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education Trust commented “I was impressed and delighted by Sir Kevan’s vision and strategic approach to a recovery plan that will support all children from early years up to and including post 16.”
However, it remains to be seen if they will resonate in government or with the Treasury who will need to fund these plans.
Schools North East see the Government’s “Recovery Plan”, due to be announced at the end of May, as the top educational priority moving forward and is in the process of designing a ‘roadmap’ to guide policymakers down a road which fully supports and empowers our schools. There is no time to waste in ensuring that all students who have suffered due to the pandemic are able to reintegrate and re-socialise into the school system as soon as possible and do much more than the bare minimum of ‘catching up’ lost learning. ‘Catch up’ is unambitious and will only put NE students, particularly the most disadvantaged, in the same position as pre-covid i.e. up to 18 months behind their more advantaged peers nationally. Schools North East will continue to lead the way and demand that as well as instilling a sense of urgency into a well-funded, school-led recovery, that the Government is as ambitious as possible for the children of our region and supports our schools to achieve the high ambitions they already have for their pupils.
Sir Kevan’s key messages were reinforced by the conference’s other Keynote speakers from Rob Carpenter, who explored how teachers can make learning a “social exchange”, to Debra Kidd, who looked at how teachers can adapt their curriculum to effectively teach cross-subject curriculum. Both stressed key messages of ‘school-led’, ‘agency’, ‘voice’, in relation to schools and students leading the way out of covid. Panel member and Head Teacher at St Anthony's Girls' Catholic Academy Monica Shepherd, after reflection on the words from Sir Kevan, found the main takeaway was, “That “catch up” or “recovery” needs to be in the hands of schools with obviously the relevant checks and balances.” Keynote speaker Mary Myatt also supported this, encouraging delegates to listen to what their pupils are saying to support planning around the curriculum.
If you have any thoughts on how Schools North East can guide Government thinking on “catch-up” and “recovery” please email info@schoolsnortheast.com . We would love to hear from you. A big thank you to our main sponsor GCSEPod and our media partner TES. If you would like to see all of this year's Curriculum Conference 2021’s wonderful sessions it is not too late to sign up and watch the recordings.
