J'AIME MAY 2020

E D U CAT I O N
Time for change
AS MILLIONS OF PARENTS STRUGGLE TO GET TO GRIPS WITH THE REALITIES OF HOME-EDUCATING
OUR CHILDREN DURING THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS, FORMER MIDLANDS HEADTEACHER AND
EDUCATION CAMPAIGNER PHIL SHARROCK SAYS IT’S TIME FOR A MORE RELAXED APPROACH - AND
EXAMINES WHY WE SHOULDN’T BE IN ANY RUSH TO RETURN TO SCHOOLING AS WE KNOW IT
How exciting for us all, schools will
be returning soon! Or is it?! The
neverending, seemingly daily rhetoric
from political parties on all sides that
schools need to open to get our economy
back on track is in full swing.
May I make a small point?
First, I don’t care about the economy.
I think it was Harold Wilson who said:
“Nobody can get the economy right,
there are only degrees of getting it
wrong.” Well it’s gone wrong now hasn’t
it? And I respectfully suggest it will be Mr
and Mrs Joe Public that will have to bail
it out yet again.
Secondly, what about the health and wellbeing of
our children?
Thirdly, will you ignore the teachers and people on
the ground who you will expect to do thy bidding?
Finally, SCHOOLS HAVE NEVER BEEN
CLOSED. Teachers and support staff work every
day to supervise the key workers’ and vulnerable
children, they check on the vulnerable children NOT
in school, they sort out some form of structured
learning (which I will return to in due course),
they are feeding families who are now in dire
circumstances.
The Secretary of State for Education, Gavin
Williamson, has said in the last week that there are
five non negotiables before schools return: “First
we must protect the NHS’s ability to cope, and be
sure that it can continue to provide critical care and
specialist treatment right across the whole of the
United Kingdom.
“Second, we need to see daily death rates from
coronavirus coming down. Third, we need to have
reliable data that shows the rate of infection is
decreasing to manageable levels.
“Four, we need to be confident that testing capacity
and PPE is being managed, with supply able to meet
PARENTS SHOULDN’T FEEL
PRESSURED TO BE TEACHERS
DURING THIS TIME
not just today’s demand, but future demand.
“And fifth, and perhaps most crucially, we need to be
confident that any changes we do make will not risk a
second peak of infections.”
I really hope they follow this advice. But I suspect
the weight of pressure will be told, and you can
all celebrate soon and get your children back into
school.
But what is that school going to look like? Education
correspondent Anya Kamanetz suggests in her piece
for NPR that schools will look different when (and if)
they reopen:
• Stepped up health and hygiene methods
• Class sizes of 12 or fewer
• Staggered schedules
• Younger kids first
• New term times
• Different attendance policies
• No assemblies, sports, games or parent teacher
conferences
• Remote learning continues
• Social, emotional and practical help for kids
So you see, don’t celebrate just yet. This is not
going away, not in the short term. In general I’m in
agreement with what Anya is saying but I need to
ask… have you ever tried to keep 12 five-year-old
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