Dear Parents & Carers
We now have a date to work towards – Monday 8 March. This school return date is unlikely to be all kids in all years, it may well be delayed more than once, and it is subject to a range of conditions being met in terms of infection rates, pressure on the NHS, etc, but nevertheless, it is a sign that we can begin to work towards reopening – and staying open this time.
That said, I do have some questions and comments about it all and, by happy coincidence, I have a phone call booked with the Office of the Regional Schools Commissioner next week. They are a branch of the Department for Education and have approached me as they want to hear the views of headteachers to pass back to central government (have they really thought this through?), so I get to have my rant at long last. I will be sure to mention or ask the following:
- The repeated rows we see in the media between the DfE, teaching unions, Ofsted, etc whenever we broach the subject of schools reopening do the kids in the system no good at all and do a great deal of harm to this profession. Why is it that the people we always see and hear with the loudest voices are those who haven’t set foot in a school for years, if ever, don’t work with kids or teachers in schools, and have mostly spent the last 10 months safely tucked up at home giving interviews? Speak to actual teachers, kids and parents.
- Why did Ofsted create a completely pointless regime of remote visits last term? Ofsted are made up of hundreds of highly-qualified teachers. When school after school was closing due to teacher absence – why weren’t they deployed into classrooms to teach? They could have made a difference and kept schools open. There’s something very wrong when all these inspectors (qualified teachers remember) were conducting remote interviews, hearing about schools sending home whole year groups or classes because of teacher absence but doing nothing about it. We had our visit last November. It was a total waste of time. They wouldn’t give us any constructive feedback, even when we asked. It created a load of work for us and turned out to be a transparent attempt to appear busy to the taxpayer. Get them in the classrooms to actually help kids learn for the remainder of this crisis and stop trying to rush back to inspections. Priorities!
- How will the system gather together what we have learnt through this pandemic, especially around SEND education (see my numerous previous rants)? So many great initiatives could be born from this last, horrible year in education. What an amazing opportunity for an inspirational Secretary of State for Education.
- Speaking of which… It’s getting embarrassing now, someone has to do something. There is a reason Twitter is full of clips of Gavin Williamson with Frank Spencer’s voice dubbed over the top.
This phone call will be like therapy for me. There is so much I have to say to them – I can’t wait.
It feels like I can start looking forward to getting the school back to how it should be and, as the vaccination schedule continues, loosening and then abandoning the restrictions we have implemented. When kids hopefully start to return to school in March, it will mark a full year since we were last able to have an assembly in a hall, or gather staff together, and it now feels like we can think about these gatherings again, albeit late in the summer or even next autumn. We have a new whole-school improvement plan ready to go, initiatives covering extra-curricular, behaviour, welfare, teaching & learning, all planned but all sidelined by the juggernaut that has been Covid-19.
Now we have a date, we have started planning – beginning with reviewing our curriculum to make sure your children are not disadvantaged by the last year. Additionally, the Year 11 mock papers will be with the students by half term. We are ready to react to any and all instructions regarding what replaces GCSE and A Level exams now the consultation has closed and we wait to hear how the exams for 2022 (current Years 10 and 12) may be adjusted. As the picture becomes clearer we will share all this information with you. Above all, we look forward to opening again – and staying open this time.
Best wishes
Andy Perry – Head Teacher
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