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Principals fear that the reopening of England’s schools could be undermined because parents will not consent to Covid testing for their children and because guidance on wearing face masks in classes cannot be enforced.
The warnings came after a slew of educational announcements from the government, culminating in a series of guidance on summer assessments that will put pressure on already overloaded teachers.
Announcing its plans this week for a full reopening of schools on March 8, the government promised a series of measures designed to improve Covid safety, including twice-weekly testing for high school students and a recommendation to use face covers in classrooms.
However, school leaders complained to The Guardian that the message was undermined when the minister for school standards, Nick Gibb, admitted in television interviews Thursday that neither was mandatory and it was up to parents to decide.
“I’m really desperate,” said Alan Brookes, executive director of Fulston Manor School in Sittingbourne, Kent.
He said letters had been sent earlier this year requesting parental consent for regular Covid tests using rapid lateral flow testing, and uptake had been low, with consent in some Kent schools running at 35%. -40%. “We’re starting to have parents say, ‘If it’s not required, what’s the point?’” Brookes said.
On the confusion surrounding the use of masks in classrooms, he added: “In a way, it’s easier when people say, ‘That’s right, that’s what you have to do.’ It will be incredibly challenging for all teachers to keep a line on that now. “
Jules White, principal of Tanbridge House School in Horsham, West Sussex, described Gibb’s intervention as “quite useless.” Having written to parents on Monday saying that it would be mandatory for students to cover their faces in classrooms, he was forced to review his orientation.
White also expressed skepticism about the tests. “I think it will be difficult. What happens if 10%, 20%, 30% of the children decide they are not going to take the test? Everyone can come the next day. We practically know that the tests are only moderately reliable. It’s a huge amount of time, resources and energy for something that has flaws.
A student’s first three tests must be taken at school over a two-week period, after which students will take the test kits home. A school leader imagined the streets around his school littered with discarded evidence.
Armies of local volunteers, teaching assistants, kitchen workers, office staff and retired teachers have been tied in to help administer the tests. Many students will be called in next week to start the testing program early to ensure face-to-face teaching resumes as soon as possible.
It is also feared that disenchanted older students, especially those in year 11 with no exams to prepare for, will not return. Sammy Wright, the assistant principal at Southmoor Academy in Sunderland, said: “For students who were not involved before and have completely disconnected now, it will be quite difficult to make them think that school is a place for them.”
School and university leaders told The Guardian that their staff would face increasing demands on their time to award A-levels and GCSE grades, and that teacher assessment would replace in-person exams for students in England after the The government will cancel the exams earlier this year.
Teachers are expected to collect material to award prizes to each student, using past work and mock test results, as well as all future work until the June 18 submission deadline.
The Department of Education and Ofqual, the test regulator, issued the first guidance for schools on how the process would work on Thursday, though Ofqual has yet to release technical details, including how schools should weigh the evidence of the work of the students.
Under the new system, the board of examiners, AQA, OCR, and Pearson Edexel will monitor grade inflation and quality assurance, in training materials and guidance sent to teachers and through research from schools and universities that they award unusual prizes.
The Royal Statistical Society, which was highly critical of Ofqual’s efforts last year to issue ratings using an algorithm, criticized the government’s latest plans as vague and called for more transparency in the use of historical data.
“While a teacher grade system will help avoid some of the problems of last year around the awarding of grades, we need to see more details,” said Sharon Witherspoon, vice president of education and statistical literacy for the society. “We understand that schools will receive the results from previous years for guidance, but there is no information on how teachers should, or even could, use this data.
“The process of maintaining external quality assurance is even less clear. If exam centers need to be reviewed based on random sample and risk, suggests that historical results will play a role. We would like to see transparency from the review boards on the types of historical pattern changes that could trigger external quality control in the next stage of guidance. “
Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, announcing plans for teacher evaluations to parliament, said: “Examination boards will issue grade descriptions to help ensure that grades are fair and consistent. These will link broadly to performance standards from previous years, so that teachers and students are clear about what is expected in each grade. “
But Williamson later told MPs that it was not possible to link this year’s awards to those of previous years “because sadly, as a result of doing so, it would probably involve some kind of algorithm.”
An instruction from Williamson to Ofqual revealed that students will be shown the evidence used by teachers to determine their grades before the school or university submits their final grade.
Simon Lebus, Ofqual’s acting chief regulator, warned in his response to Williamson that “this year’s results may be different from previous years.”
Lebus said that teachers will be asked to “take into account how the pandemic has disrupted teaching at their school or university. Teachers will not be asked to make individual grading judgments that force them to imagine that the pandemic has not occurred. “
