Time for Plan B? Whatever the opposite of having all your ducks in a row is, we’re there now.
Whatever the opposite of having all your ducks in a row is, we’re there now.
11 Local Authority areas move to Level 4 restrictions this week – covering more than 2 million people
Trust in SQA continues to wane
·Teacher absence figures continue to grow and the pressure on schools increases daily
Number of pupils - especially seniors - isolating at home due to COVID continues to grow.
April 2020 was a time of unprecedented crisis and immediate action was required – schools were closed, exams were cancelled. It was a shock to the system. It was unforeseen. However, we are now in November 2020 and although there is talk of a vaccine, the light at the end of the tunnel is still a way off.
We have had months to plan and prepare for Plan B. Teachers, candidates and families cannot be treated the same as earlier this year. They need clear and unequivocal communications about what plan B is and when Plan B would be triggered. There is a Plan B – isn’t there?
We have had the delay in SQA publishing the final assessment details for all courses – not due until 19th of this month. However, we were initially cheered when the same agency timeously published the timetable for the H and AH exanimations which are to take place in 2021. To refresh your memory, the Depute First Minister, announced in October 2020 that there would be no exams for National 5 on 2021 but Higher and Advanced Higher examinations would go ahead as planned. He said “ …… but will start from 13 May next year, later than normal, to allow for more teaching to be done to make up for some of the teaching time lost at the end of 2019/20”.
How disappointed we were again by SQA. Firstly, SQA published said timetable on 5 November 2020 and had to re-call and re-issue it almost immediately as they had forgotten to apply all the changes they had already made to the rubric of the assessment for some courses. For example, the exam lengths listed in the timetable did not reflect the changes cited in the modification summary reports for AH Mech, AH Maths and H Maths.
In addition, despite the PR from the Scottish Qualifications Authority saying that their compressed exam timetable allowed more teaching time and they had minimised the number of learners with exams on the same day the reality is somewhat different.
In fact, there seems to be very little additional time for teaching built into the timetable. You only have to look at the schedule to find significant subjects being examined on the same day, or with only very short gaps in between. Furthermore, on a closer look at the newly published timetable and previous years you will find, that the reality does not match the promises. For example, as Andrew Bailey notes on Twitter, while teachers were promised exams would be later in 2021 to allow for more teaching and learning time, the physics exam is three days earlier than in 2019. In 2021, the Physics exam is to be held on 12th May. There was no exam in 2020 due to the pandemic but on looking at previous years, the same exams were held on: 15th May in 2019; 8th May in 2018; 17th May in 2017; 24th May in 2016; 5th May in 2015; 22 May 2014; and on 27 May in 2013. This pattern is repeated in other subjects.
Many parents, pupils and teachers took to twitter to express concern about the overlap or short time in between exams. Some cited Higher Media and Higher Modern Studies on the same day. Others were concerned about 2 Highers with only 45 minutes break in between, while others were angry that this group of young people, who have no experience of a full exam diet, will be under unfair pressure and stress. These voices won’t go away easily and will more likely grow as the time nears. Where there is overlap or very short time break in between two exams, schools are tasked with applying measures to assist young people cope in these situations. A problem created by SQA with teachers expected to find solutions. That is sounding too familiar these days with the approach to assessment for National 5 falling heavily on teachers too.
The second issue of related concern is also about workload and unfair burdens placed on schools. This week, School Leaders’ Scotland have spoken about “oppressive and debilitating” burden on school leaders as they are left to deal with track and trace and contact with individuals and families when a positive Covid19 test result is reported for a member of their school community. Headteachers and other school staff work tirelessly for their communities and they appreciate they have a role to play in ensuring the health, wellbeing and safety of all. However, the current burden is very heavy. Once a positive test has been reported, school leaders are examining seating plans, timetables, friendship groupings and then making decisions about who has to self-isolate. Then they make contact with the families affected. The headteachers I know do this personally by telephone before a letter drops on the hall mat or into the family email inbox.
This is having an impact on the stress and health and wellbeing of all those concerned, both by the virus itself and in dealing with the ongoing track and trace information. While senior staff are dealing with this, there is less focus on teaching, learning, closing the attainment gap and school improvement. However, there are also many who are paying the price of another kind.
At this week’s STUC conference, Nicola Fisher of EIS said” There has been a 672% rise in school children contacting coronavirus in the last three months”. The number of pupils absent from school in Scotland because of COVID 19 has nearly trebled since the October holiday. Statistics from the Covid-19 Education Recovery Group for week ending October 25 shows that infection rates among nursery age children and young people are on the rise but most worryingly, the figures for 16 to 17-year-olds is the highest at 168.9 cases per 100,000. These figures reveal that since children returned to school in August, the number of absentees as a direct result of Covid-19 has risen by three-and-a-half times.
We are seeing the impact of the virus on school attendance rates across the country – both among staff and pupils. There have been closures in some areas such as Moray and calls for temporary fire break closures in others. There have also been suggestions that schools could close early for Christmas to take the pressure off growing rates and assisting families in their bubbles. School holidays for most local authority areas are scheduled to begin on December 22 or 23, just days before Christmas. The picture differs from area to area and as a consequence young people in different parts of the country are more adversely affected than others.
So, we have a continuing lack of trust and faith in SQA by the teaching profession, also evidenced in the Priestly Review, growing coronavirus absence rates among staff and pupils and increasing exam and administrative burdens placed on schools.
The main questions therefore must be: how can we expect business as usual for teaching and learning? How can we expect business as usual for Higher and Advanced Higher examinations in May 2021 with these increasing infection and absence rates?
Leadership needs to come to the fore in Scottish Education. We need to move to a fully funded, equitable blended learning model to protect the holistic health and wellbeing of all. No one wants blanket school closures. As educationalists we, more than others, know the positive impact school has on the lives of so many children and young people. A proper blended model with learning hubs, as appropriate, could be the solution.
Wales announced last week that the 2021 exams are to be cancelled but in Scotland, the DFM announced that we have to wait until February before discussion/decision. It’s as if we have learned nothing from
We need a fairly speedy announcement that the traditional 2021 diet of exams for H and AH is not possible. The absence rates themselves are a cause for concern among senior pupils. Added to that is the merry-go-round of in attendance and then asked to self-isolate again if another pupil you sit beside in a class tests positive. We all know of families where this has happened numerous times. This is only likely to worsen as winter deepens. The impact on the learning and progress of these S5/6 pupils is real and is being hampered. Any exam diet – no matter how delayed or compressed - cannot take account of this chaos and cannot mitigate against the unfairness for many candidates who found themselves in and out of school due to self-isolation and / or possible coronavirus infection. A level playing field is just not possible.
The teacher professional organisations are keeping a close eye on these developments and the EIS assert that a move to blended learning models requires planning and cooperation. They don’t want to see a repeat of the reactive approaches of March /April 2020. Larry Flanagan is quoted this week as saying if we move to blended learning, “schools should be given notice rather than finding out just a couple of days before it happens.”