North East schools react to Covid restrictions being lifted
The Prime Minister’s statement this week that the final Covid restrictions could be lifted a full month earlier than previously announced has been met with mixed reactions by schools in the North East.
Restrictions, such as the legal requirement for individuals to self-isolate following a positive PCR test, are expected to be dropped, ‘provided the current encouraging trends in the data continue’, said Mr Johnson during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. The Prime Minister went on to say that, following a return from parliamentary recess on 22nd February, a strategy for living with Covid would be presented, replacing current laws with ‘guidance’, with individuals who test positive for Covid being encouraged, rather than forced, to isolate.
Reaction to this announcement has been met with a mixture of surprise, some optimism, and much hesitation, with Schools North East Director Chris Zarraga stating that, although the news will be broadly welcomed by many, from a school perspective the continuing and very varied impact of the pandemic needs to be taken into account.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5Live and BBC Radio Tees yesterday, Chris also expressed concern over Boris Johnson’s announcement. ‘The problem is that, when you look at individual contexts that schools are working in, regions are different and local areas within those regions are different again’, Chris noted, before urging the Prime Minister to support School Leaders, Head Teachers and CEOs and provide them with the flexibility to respond to their individual situations.
This perspective was also shared by North East school leaders, with one expressing concern about the still high number of positive cases in the region, stating that they were ‘sad that there is no regional variance on the lifting. The Government needs to understand the context of each region and act accordingly’. This echoed Chris’ statement that ‘this announcement was made without any real consultation with schools’, before questioning what it would look like for individual schools and asking what school leaders would be allowed and expected to do within their schools.
The announcement was met positively by other school leaders who welcomed the dropping of restrictions, with one stating that ‘the impact that the isolations have had, not just on keeping a school open, but also in the quality of education we have been able to provide, has been a considerable challenge.’ They went on to say that ‘our childrens’ education has been disrupted enough’ and that, at some stage, schools will have to learn to live with Covid. However, it remains to be seen what the scientific basis is for making this announcement now and whether or not the region’s covid statistics re infections and very high levels of staff absence have been taken into account. Chris stated earlier this week that ‘the current impact on North East schools is that we have approx 30% of schools with less than 80% of staffing and some even have below 50% staffing levels, with high student absences on top of that’. This reiterates the view that every region and, indeed, every school is different and they each face very different challenges; while some schools in the region have managed to get by with their staffing numbers throughout the pandemic, others have – and still are – suffering tremendously.
It is these issues, faced by individual schools, that the Government needs to take into account when revealing their strategy on 22nd February. This was echoed by Paul Whiteman of NAHT.
‘School leaders and parents will need clarity from public health advisors about when pupils and staff do still need to stay at home’, Mr Whiteman said, before stating that while the latest change from the Government may ‘reduce the amount of time pupils and staff are absent for, it won’t stop those absences altogether’.
As well as high numbers of staff absences, a serious concern for schools on both a regional and national level is how the dropping of restrictions will affect vulnerable students. The broad brush approach to a full ‘return to normal’ doesn’t take into account t how many vulnerable children a school or setting might have, which is quite worrying for specialist settings who have high numbers of vulnerable students.
This concern was echoed by members of the National Network of Special Schools for School Business Professionals, who expressed concerns over the Prime Minister’s announcement, with one member believing that it would raise anxiety across the school and stating that ‘Whilst a ‘return to normal’ has been long awaited, for some of our vulnerable children, and we have some very vulnerable staff too, this will make people very concerned’. Another member expressed similar concerns in that their school has ‘pupils with existing health issues and implications. I am sure those parents will ‘shield’ their children, which will impact our attendance.’
While it is promising that some schools are already looking to get ‘back to normal’, the overwhelming majority of opinions are that schools are not ready for these restrictions to be dropped and that the Government needs to address this and, at the very least, provide schools and MATs with the support and flexibility they need to successfully negotiate this next (and hopefully final!) stage of the pandemic.