At the beginning of term our school leaders went from preparing their return, and even welcoming children back in on the first day, to remote learning again in less than 24 hours as lockdown was called. Some of our Head Teachers have shared their stories.
Kate Chisholm – Skerne Park Academy
Sitting down and switching on the TV to listen to Mr Johnson present the latest in the long line of dynamic key changes in the world of education sat with me like a tempestuous storm where by the powers that be are safely tucked away in the rescue vessel and we, the educational community, have little but a deflating life jacket to keep us afloat. It is not that we are adverse to change, Head Teachers over the decades of political ping pong where the schools system is the ball, have been well rehearsed for this climactic juxtaposition of policy and practicality however, 11 hours notice Boris…?
In school planning in a typical year systems are planned well in advance with just minor tweaks throughout the year according to the situations at the time. This could be teachers leaving mid-year, pupil numbers fluctuating, and drops in data in a specific subject; all of which are bread and butter to a usual Head Teacher year. This year has been different as school have mitigated the impact of Covid 19, DFE ‘solutions’, lagged funding as well as staggered timetables, Covid 19 risk assessments, PPE, bubbles, track and trace, isolating, Public Health England, exam uncertainty and then the concern over increasing contagion rates. On the whole we have managed and created excellent solutions to an unprecedented time.
So amongst all this, where a significant number of Heads haven’t had the opportunity for a restful Christmas as they were track and tracing up until Christmas Eve and were frantically trying to organise a testing system they are completely unqualified, uninsured and ill-equipped to facilitate before the start of term, we get the announcement that schools are closing and key worker provision is to begin again with 11 hours notice.
So immediately at 8.30 at night I am organising a Teams meeting with my SLT to decide what to do next. After 90 minutes (at 10pm) I am then text messaging parents and fielding manic phone calls informing them that the school would be working differently from the next working day. We had to close on Tuesday due to not having key worker criteria, rotas, understanding of any shielding staff, risk assessments, online learning, to name but a few, in place. In addition to this Mr Williamson kindly added the criteria that learning needed to be immediately progressive, with a substantial amount of new learning happening each day which meant the systems we used during the last lock down were no longer fit for purpose.
The next day saw rise to much confusion without any key worker criteria, no devices, no communication as to free school meals provision, but all the while the government informing parents that we have devices and that school will be finding, where possible, a local solution to free school meals. We haven’t been asked what is practical nor feasible nor were we made aware of additional funding which may come. In these austere times where every penny is accounted for and redundancies commonplace in the education sector the pressure this puts school leaders under, whilst always trying to do the right thing to look after its most vulnerable pupils, was not helpful.
Once the key worker criteria was published we realised that a rewrite of our risk assessments were due again as the criteria was so vague that the majority of working parents were entitled to a place, the majority of children who were disadvantaged were also entitled and then any child without a device or quiet household, left us unsure as to the whole announcement of a school closure as under this criteria, most schools could be fully open.
As is ever the case with all schools we have rallied, created dynamic and successful systems and are gradually (as devices begin to come into settings) managing to enable remote learning to be what it needs to be, testing to begin to come online and meal support to be in keeping with the needs of the community, albeit somewhat sleep deprived and with probably too much cortisol running through our systems than is good for us. We at no point have ever said it is not possible to do what is asked but I would say the professional courtesy of time would have been of great benefit.
As Ofsted attest, to be a successful school they measure ‘the extent to which leaders take into account the workload and well-being of their staff, while also developing and strengthening the quality of the workforce’ and yet our strategic government leader bore this no mind in giving his advice on school lockdown with the only option but to work into the early hours of the morning to ensure this could be enacted upon. This, backed up by Gavin Williamson’s encouragement to parents to complain to Ofsted if schools aren’t continuing to immediately be all things to all men is neither helpful nor in the spirit in which we are treating all other public services. Whilst all other government ministers are praising their sectors… I am yet to hear Gavin clapping for us.
Ben Wassall – Chillingham Road Primary
Leading our school through lockdown version 3.0 has not been easy and as a learning community has presented us with the toughest challenge yet. Fortunately, the high level of support and integrity demonstrated by Newcastle LA, our Governing Body, our incredible staff, families and of course our young Chillizens continues to flex-feather like in the storm.
Perhaps, it is the fact that locally, looking at the maps and data, we are currently not in a crimson covid centre that mitigates my own levels of anxiety. Our most recent peak (in Newcastle) was mid –November, when I also received a positive test result and needed to self-isolate with my three kids. This time has been different though and attempting to reduce staff anxiety and offer reassurances was nigh on impossible following the Christmas day catastrophe and Andrew Marr announcement.
Erika (my awesome deputy head) and I spent all of Sunday morning on the 4th January 2021, post the prime ministers’ interview on the aforementioned chat show, contacting all staff in school to gauge their levels of anxiety about an immediate whole school return. A consensus naturally gathered strength and during our Zoom with Governors and SLT on the afternoon, it was agreed we would notify families immediately and bring forward our spring INSET days in attempt to buy some time and carefully consider our operational capacity and current union advice.
The review of our risk assessment with senior leaders took place in a Baltic staffroom – ventilation verging on frostbite. Staff and union leaders were then given time to respond as we carried on planning an emergency school scenario and improved remote offer. Tuesday’s lockdown U-turn announcement offered a temporary sense of relief albeit amidst the tears and frustration shared by my twins who were due to sit their GCSE’s this year. All families of critical worker and vulnerable children had been notified and we were expecting about 50% of our school population- 120 children- back to the Chilliverse on the Wednesday morning.
We are a self-improving and reflective school and our journey throughout the pandemic has undoubtedly opened many new doors, enhanced previous systems and developed us all as practitioners. The irony is that we will be measured more on the learning that is taking place remotely than the learning within our emergency school provision. All staff are feeling heavy hearted about the children not in school. Facebook/ Seesaw/ Teams and YouTube are our preferred channels in response to family feedback from the Autumn as we aim to stay connected whilst managing the workload of staff and screen time of the kids.
I am grateful for our 20 DfE laptops and catch up premium however I remain dazed by the dangerous choices political leaders have made, reflected in the number of deaths we have seen, but moreover I am concerned about the future well-being and education of all our country’s children.
Andy Brown – Ad Astra Trust
Christmas holidays this year were different. Every day over the holidays we had a Headteacher or Central Team member checking emails to see if there were any COVID related staffing or pupil issues that may impact on safe opening in our schools. We knew schools had to open and we were well prepared.
Monday 4th January arrived, which happened coincidentally to be my first ever lockdown birthday and phew, all of our schools opened successfully as the Secretary of State insisted upon. Then the announcement from Boris changed everything at 8pm that night. So we immediately held a Teams ‘central team and Headteacher’s meeting’ and I was in awe of every single one of them, nothing phased them. They left the meeting and had further planning sessions that evening, until late with their SLTs and all of our schools opened 12 hours later to 258 vulnerable and critical worker’s children. That figure had increased to 521. Schools are not closed. The Trustees and I were proud of every single one of them. What makes this even more exceptional is that two only started their first headship in September and one even only on that first day of January! I was a Head for over 21 years and never had to deal with anything as seriously challenging as this, they all deserve a medal, as do all the school leaders, teachers and support staff out there.
Since 5th January I would like to say it has been plain sailing, but far from it, as you probably know. In my forty-three years in education, never have we needed strong leadership from the DfE more than ever than we do so today. During these difficult times I have found the daily leadership, support and advice I needed from organisations such as the Confederation of School Trusts, NAHT, Schools North East, our Local Authorities in which we are situated, colleagues and our Trust Board. Unfortunately, not from our Secretary of State and his threats of parents writing to Ofsted.
This last week has been draining, Heads are working longer than they ever had, dealing with Section 44 letters, regular changes in guidance (which for some of our schools categorises the large majority now as vulnerable), feeding disadvantaged families and managing the demands of remote learning that will be monitored by Ofsted. Today we are starting to plan for testing staff in all our primary schools, it never ceases. Some of our schools are now at capacity for safety in terms of social distancing and providing remote learning, but the DfE guidance states if children fit a category, they are permitted a place. Who do I listen to? The DfE or our Health and Safety advisors?
We will though keep smiling and doing what we morally should do in supporting our vulnerable pupils and allowing our frontline workers to do the amazing job that they do; we will be forever grateful. There are some great good news stories many from parents who are grateful and appreciative of the remote learning opportunities. One included a pupil who could not get back from the Czech Republic but has accessed her lessons remotely this week! Good will come from this I know. We have a new way of working and we have already decided to look at different methods of professional development and pedagogy in the future.
Yes, it wasn’t the birthday I expected, but it’s one I’ll always remember and there’s always next year. The positive is the pressure on the government from all agencies for school employees to be high up the ranking for the next priority groups to be announced for vaccinations in England, that gives us all hope for 2021 and beyond.
Pauline Northcott, Dean Bank Primary and Nursery School
The weekend before we started back I spent Saturday trying to find any updates and checking that I’d updated risk assessments and these had been shared with staff. I had several messages from parents saying they were going to keep their pupils off so I responded by trying to reassure them that although the new strain was more contagious, we had everything in place that we could. We all agreed that we still believed children should be back in school and that we would just have to deal with the fallout from this on Monday. I was the only school not to have a CPD day so they all felt they had a couple of days to make decisions.
The majority of the anxiety came from local staff who knew that social distancing and COVID rules had been basically breeched for two weeks. They said that they knew I would try and make school safe but our community wasn’t. I had no reply, knowing this would be true. At 2:30pm I was then informed that whatever decision I was making regarding opening would be supported by the Local Authority. I had already decided that I had enough staff to open safely so had no decision to make really.
Monday morning arrived with just one section 44 letter presented by a teaching assistant meaning that school opened. It was definitely sombre and several staff were obviously very anxious around their own children’s schooling and home learning being left with grandparents.
During the morning I monitored e-mails from Unions, the Local Authority and spoke to other Heads, and was then informed that there was going to be an announcement that evening. Many staff ate in classrooms at lunchtime avoiding each other in the staff room and I continued to have communications with parents who were so angry that school was open. I explained that school as was open and although I understood their position, I could not authorise the absence; coding had changed since December. I then spent the afternoon checking our remote learning policy and how we could do this quickly i.e. if we were given 2 or 3 days’ notice. I then had a call from my Chair of Governors who was really concerned about the number of local cases and felt that as our attendance was below 70%, we should close for 2 weeks, in line with our local comprehensive school to support the drive to lower local cases.
I knew this was the right thing to do but struggled knowing that I couldn’t do anything else in school and the transmission in our community was closing the school, not me. The majority of our staff meetings had been virtual so it was with surprise that I asked staff to come into the hall at the end of the day to update them. I explained that although I knew it was the right decision, it was with a heavy heart that I was closing the school due to the high level of cases within the community. I thanked them for coming into school even with their heightened anxiety and said that I knew their loyalty to me, our school and our pupils had put them in a difficult decision. I said that I had expected more Section 44 letters and would have understood if these had been forthcoming. I was then handed a letter that had been signed by the majority of staff.
I accepted this letter and explained that I had contacted the Local Authority with our decision and concluded the meeting by saying I was expecting everyone in the following morning to support our vulnerable pupils and key worker children. I then spent the next hour contacting parents telling them what had been decided and trying to persuade vulnerable families to send their children into school.
I, along with the nation watched the announcement that evening that schools should not reopen fully on Tuesday. However, the definition of vulnerable children, could now be identified within school, the wider range of jobs meaning more parents are key workers and if children just don’t have a device or a quiet place to work could all come into school. How was I going to manage this as well as reassuring staff that we could still open safely?
My staff have been brilliant. Support staff in full time supervising pupils and delivering work set by teachers who are on a rota to avoid too many staff coming into school. It was a manic couple of days but we had it sorted by Thursday. Parents and children are contacted daily, many respond positively but after a couple of days we feel that the numbers are increasing and parents are making excuses for children not completing work. This will be our next battle. Provide work, provide feedback, and chase up non engagement with relationships with parents becoming fractured if we are asking why we’ve not had any work back after a couple of days.
We are trying our best but I feel my staff are struggling with their own anxiety and the continual negativity in the media around schools being closed and now the food we are providing being inadequate, is another side swipe to a dedicated profession.
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