During the pandemic, continuing on into this academic year, the education system has been under enormous pressure. In the face of these challenges, schools have gone ‘above and beyond’, acting as the ‘fourth emergency service’ and proving to be vital national strategic infrastructure.
Schools North East has regularly conducted surveys and roundtables throughout the pandemic on key issues and challenges our schools are facing in order to ensure that the voices of North East school leaders are heard as widely as possible.
Our ‘State of the Region’ surveys intend to monitor the ongoing impact of the pandemic across this academic year, looking at how the situation is developing each term. This will ensure education stakeholders and policymakers get an accurate picture of the environment and challenges North East schools are contending with. Our briefings are sent to a range of strategic stakeholders, including the DfE, Ofsted, and all North East Members of Parliament.
The first of these surveys was sent out on the first week of this half term (week commencing 1st November 2021), to all CEOs and Head Teachers in our region. We received responses from all 12 Local Authorities in the North East, representing all stages and types of schools. The school leaders that responded represent over 200 schools in our region.
Staff
Our previous surveys have highlighted staff wellbeing as a key concern throughout the pandemic, as schools took on significant additional responsibilities and managed widespread Covid-related disruption, particularly towards the end of the summer term.
On a scale of one to five, with five being very good and one being very poor, 52% of schools reported staff wellbeing as three. Just under 20% were below three, and just under 30% were above. In comparison to the very low baseline point of the end of the summer term 2021, around half of respondents said staff wellbeing was worse or much worse now.
In terms of what is driving negative staff wellbeing, almost three quarters said continued Covid-related disruption, 70% said Ofsted pressures, almost 60% said workload related to ‘catch-up’, and just under 40% said Covid-related anxieties. Other factors included general exhaustion, and supporting pupils with additional needs. This also appears to be the case on a national level. Last week, TES reported that the Education Support charity’s survey saw that 77% of the 3,354 school staff who took part had experienced symptoms of poor mental health in the past year. Covid again was the major factor in this.
Almost 70% of schools in our State of the Region survey said that mental health and wellbeing support from within their school or trust was having a positive impact on staff wellbeing, and over half (54%) said that being back in the classroom was driving positive staff wellbeing.
Students
Using the same scale as above, almost two thirds of schools reported student wellbeing as four or above, and a third rated it three. Over a quarter said that student wellbeing was better than at the end of the summer term, and over half said it was about the same. 17% said that it was worse.
Figures from The Children’s Society also seem to reflect this, with the BBC reporting that the likelihood of young people having mental health issues has increased in the last three years, with psychotherapists on TikTok amassing millions of followers and likes in the past twelve months.
‘Catch-up’
School plans on ‘catch-up’ are based around the individual needs of students, supporting general academic recovery, basic skills, mental health and wellbeing support, and targeted interventions aimed at those groups of students most likely to have struggled during school closures.
The majority of schools don’t think the Government’s plan on education recovery is adequate to address the impact of the pandemic. Schools are concerned that the current education recovery package lacks an understanding of the challenges, needs, and resources schools face and have. The current plans are seen as too restrictive and complicated, involving a lot of paperwork and insufficient funding. Schools want to see a longer term plan that identifies the extent of the challenge with a real intention to close the gaps that have emerged during the pandemic, and existed before it.
Ofsted
Throughout the Autumn term, feedback from school leaders has highlighted increasing concerns about Ofsted, particularly with regards to increased workloads and the ability of school inspections to take into account the impact of the pandemic. Within this context, we separately asked about what changes could be made to Ofsted to better support schools.
The majority (54%) wanted to see a temporary pause to Ofsted inspections, with Ofsted looking instead at how best to recognise and mitigate the impact of Covid. This is also reflected nationally, with TES reporting that a third of schools stating that their requests for inspections to be deferred were rejected by Ofsted.
A further 20% of those surveyed by Schools North East wanted to see inspections only used to baseline where schools currently are, and to identify the support schools need. The remaining responses still wanted to see Ofsted playing a more supportive role, rather than resuming inspections as ‘normal’. Despite this, an Ofsted spokesperson told Schools Week this week that ‘inspections are carrying on as usual and in line with public health guidance’. This is despite rising cases of the new Omicron variant being discovered in the UK.
Many of our respondents wanted to see Ofsted inspections without a graded result, rather focusing on the impact of the pandemic and how best to mitigate this. Additionally, schools wanted to see the removal of national testing and performance tables, with more realistic targets and expectations that acknowledge the ongoing effects of the pandemic.
If you would like to read the full report, please click on the following link.
