No plan for schools as new lockdown imposed – Jayne Dowle

My daughter Lizzie goes back to school today after a week off for half-term and let’s just say there’s some trepidation.

We’ve done this back-to-school thing countless times, but never in the face of a global pandemic entering a worrying and dangerous second wave. It’s difficult, as a parent, to try to appear sanguine when your worries are both immediate and far-reaching.

Like everyone else, I fear that my family may become ill. And for Lizzie and her generation, I am so concerned that their futures hang in the balance. What seemed like a straightforward path for my bright and outgoing daughter – GCSEs, A-levels and then an exciting decision over which universities to apply to – has suddenly clouded over.

The big question for Lizzie is how long will she be back into her routine, leaving the house at 8.20am and returning at 3pm. She’s already been sent home from school once to quarantine for seven days because one of the girls in her class “bubble” tested positive for coronavirus. This was a shock.

No leaving the house at all. No friends. No dance classes. No popping round to granny’s for tea, or even walking the dog. Just schoolwork sent by email and endless films.

Months of lockdown, followed by the long summer holiday and then a week of quarantine, have certainly dulled her appetite for staying at home. Those listless days with nothing much to do and nowhere to go have, however, given her plenty of time to think.

Two months into studying for her GCSEs, she’s already worrying about falling behind. She returned to school, thankfully fit and well, after her quarantine, attended for a day and then was obliged to stay at home the next because of coronavirus-related teacher absence.

I have absolutely every sympathy for education leaders, who are juggling impossible pressures to keep all schools and colleges open. However, as I watched Lizzie attempting to understand some particularly taxing algebra using only an online worksheet and her friends on FaceTime for guidance, I felt so fearful.

Her learning, progress and confidence are already being impacted, and she has more than 18 months to go before a public exam paper looms. How would she feel if her GCSE mocks were looming before Christmas?

I have several friends with teenagers in this predicament; to a parent, they are backing calls from the Northern Powerhouse Partnership to see coursework used to assess GCSE and A-level candidates, instead of exams, until we are sure that the worst of the pandemic is behind us.

And what sensible parent wouldn’t back this? The devolved Welsh government is reported to be taking it on board – pupils would be marked on coursework and through special externally marked assessments.

Meanwhile the Government says GCSE exams in England will go ahead next summer as planned, but three weeks later than scheduled. Apparently, this extra time will give students affected by coronavirus absence ample time to catch up. Three weeks? After 12 months of constant disruption? It’s nowhere near enough of a solution to provide reassurance to either youngsters, parents or teachers.

And what’s more, Northern teenagers at state schools, already at a disadvantage in so many ways before the pandemic, will be the worst-affected. Sarah Mulholland, head of policy at the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, says the North has some LEAs with attendance rates for secondary schools as low as 61 per cent. Put this into a national context and you’ll find that a number of local authorities in the South-east and south-west of England are close to the usual national average of 95 per cent.

We must also accept that many of our young people are already opting out of school altogether. Teachers and school leaders are so stretched trying to keep up with “lost” pupils, they simply can’t find the time and resources to devise rigorous online learning methods in so many of our schools.

We know at least three Year 10 students who are not planning to return to the classroom, ever; two have dropped out because of mental ill-health and one has left because he’s found a job as a builder’s labourer. As my daughter pointed out, it could be worse. At least he’s not been recruited into drug dealing.

Clearly, unless Education Secretary Gavin Williamson takes action – and quickly – we’re heading for yet another Westminster versus the North stand-off, where positions are rapidly and decisively entrenched and everybody caught in the middle ends up as collateral damage. Only this time it is our young people, with no voice and no recourse, who will end up in the firing line.

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