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This week has shown schools at their best. As headteachers from opposite ends of London, we have seen the same extraordinary commitment to public service. Staff have delivered food to families that are self-isolating, taught lessons from home to students in school and vice versa, and they have continued to provide a place of safety in a sea of anxiety. And our teachers and support staff want to do more.
After today, as schools close for all but key workers, they are volunteering to work with community groups, to crowdfund for parents who have lost their jobs and to deliver whatever provision we have. It has never been clearer that teaching is more than a job.
For school leaders it has certainly been different. At times we have been in Cobra-style meetings trying to understand the protocols for social distancing, at other times we have been trying to work out how to open the building when the caretaker is off. Of course we accept this challenge. We are in a national moment where everyone needs to step up, but there are lessons to learn if we are to weather the storm to come.
The biggest challenge so far has been the disconnect between communications and policy. If the government announces that schools need to stay open for vulnerable children and those of key workers (as they did two days ago), they need to have the definitions ready to go. Otherwise you increase anxiety not reduce it. We have had parents calling in wanting to know whether they can continue as delivery drivers or whether their children can come in because they live in overcrowded accommodation. A list was published just after midnight last night – but if the government was serious about schools opening on Monday, headteachers needed to know the definitions on Thursday to plan the right staffing numbers.
Beyond that, there are a few things we need now from government. First, they need to give A-level and GCSE students certainty. Our students could not believe it when they were told that their exams wouldn’t happen. We need an announcement now that university admission will be based on the Ucas forms that pupils have already completed. Sixth forms should admit on predictions, offer an excellent induction and assess rigorously in October, offering a chance to change course if needed. There are no perfect answers here, but certainty beats perfection. Schools are pragmatic places. We’ll prepare students for September and make it work.
Second, bring back the most disadvantaged first. The evidence is unequivocal: children who come from poorer backgrounds need school more than other children. School closures will widen the already gaping rich/poor achievement gap. So when schools are able to admit more pupils, poorer children need to start first so we can close those gaps and set them up for their next stage. Otherwise we will be compromising future cohorts as well as this one.
Third, cut the syllabus for students in Year 10 and 12. Students taking exams in the summer of 2021 will have missed significant learning time. Exam boards should reduce the requirements so we can fit the content in when we get back.
These last weeks have shown the impact of the fragmentation of our school system. Schools are working alone to create online resources, home learning plans, meal provision. There is talk of working in hubs but there is a lack of clear leadership to drive that forward. We need more collaboration between schools, especially within communities. While we as heads have both benefited from the academies and free school system, resilience to challenges such as this requires strong, coordinated leadership.
The pandemic has revealed a real appetite for collaboration and so an opportunity has been forged by this unprecedented challenge. As it continues policy makers must ensure that school leaders are working together in the interests of the communities they serve. If schools are to support the most vulnerable effectively, they need a range of services and professionals. Schools with skeleton staff need to do it together.
There is also an opportunity here to rethink the curriculum and liberate schools, especially with Ofsted out of the way for a while. So although we accept that exams are crucial for children, it says something about our education system that we are struggling to find other ways to validate children’s experience at school.
Yesterday at school 21 in Stratford, east London, staff spent time thinking about how we could show sixth forms and employers what our 16-year-olds had done over their five years with us, what characters they were, how they helped others. And it was hard, because the balanced experience we have offered is so overwhelmed by the collection of letters and numbers children receive at the end of it all. If students are at home for a term it will be amazing to think of the different ways we can validate what they are learning. Online courses completed, community challenges achieved, personal growth. If we find a way to do that in the summer term, why stop when we open again?
So as we start a new phase in this crisis, schools are ready to show their worth. With clarity from government and a renewed commitment to working together, we can make a difference.
• Ed Vainker is the executive principal of Reach Academy, Feltham. Oli de Botton is executive headteacher of School 21 in Stratford, London
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