In these unprecedented times, there is no shortage of opinion about when the lock-down on schools should end and what we should do once everyone is back. Most teachers and school leaders have been working tirelessly to step up and keep things going. They have been learning very quickly themselves how to transfer what they do normally into this new virtual world. Even in Sweden where all schools (except for those over 16 year old students) have remained open, teachers are coping with their normal work, supporting 25% who might be at home self isolating and with a reduced teacher force similarly affected. It’s also uncertain and unclear how things might now develop. All this is sapping to a profession that at the best of times is challenged yet strangely resilient.

They are the people who will get us through this, so they need to be cherished, listened to and supported. Over the last few weeks there have been a number of speculations, two of which I will respond to. Many are knee-jerk reactions to the situation without the detailed analysis the profession should bring. I am going to start in a much more optimistic place. We should have the confidence and trust that teachers and students will get this right. And by right, I don’t mean they will just work harder and race through the curriculum content. There have to be some new rules for now and actually, I think these might even in the longer term create a much better environment for learning and better outcomes for students.

I am not naïve though. 50 years of working in schools has taught me that. The system is a very powerful intractable mechanism and the entrenched views about schooling will be difficult to shift unless the profession is very convincing, very united and has pedagogy, research and commitment behind them.

Let’s start by looking at some of the statements over the last couple of weeks.

YEAR 10 AND YEAR 12 SHOULD REPEAT THE YEAR.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, who was head of Ofsted until 2016, said that these students may have “lost out on so much” of their courses that it would not be fair to make them sit their exams next summer.

What are the consequences? Schools will face a double entry in 2022 of the repeating year with those at present in year 9. Similarly in post 16 for years 12 and 13 . I can feel schools’ exam officers bristle at managing double numbers of students sitting English GCSE at the same time. Double the examiners, double the administration in a system that has not shown itself to be robust.

I look forward to hearing the reaction from students. How demotivating this is. What was the point of all that home schooling over the last two months.

Would this mean that in 2021, there would be no university entrance from schools the prospective cohort having taken an extra year to matriculate? And double applicants the year after!

This is one of those ideas which draws from a reductive and negative point of view. Over the last few years we’ve talked a lot about teaching and learning strategies that can lead to young people making more progress than they age chronologically. Much of John Hattie’s work is all about looking at effect size. This is where the focus should be.

Anecdotally, both from my colleagues working in Sweden with the upper secondaries, and here in the UK from our Kunskapsskolan- inspired schools, students who have been working remotely have achieved as much and sometimes more than in normal schooling. We know from our implementation of personalised learning, that where you give students agency and choices, they are more motivated. Of course its more complicated than that, and we can all come up with examples of well-intentioned approaches that over the last few weeks have not led to enough progress and engagement. Understanding this and how this translates back into a ‘normal’ is important. It’s about coaching, success factors, balancing teacher and student input, relevance of tasks, and everything from cognitive load to memorisation techniques.

The suggestion about repeating a year is founded in the belief that there is a finite amount of content in the curriculum we have to cover. Teachers are already finding that there is an expectation of more to cover without this challenge of time. We could just take our foot off the gas for a couple of years. The proposal to repeat a year is I suspect linked to a belief in our accountability processes and wanting to be able to see progress measured and compared. I don’t think I care about this at the moment. I am more concerned with the motivation and well-being of young people and resilience of our profession. Students perform well when people recognise what they do well and show them how they can meet their challenging goals. Believe in them and advocate for them.

SCHOOLS SHOULD OPEN IN THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS

Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner or England said that when schools are allowed to reopen,  the long summer holidays could be a vital chance to reclaim some of the lost time. “Whether they are open to all or not, schools do have a really important role, especially for vulnerable children over the coming months.”

She added: “It would be really valuable, if the scientific advice says they can, to have schools consider opening in some form over the summer holidays to help children learn and catch up but also to offer them a safe place to play and socialise with friends. It would also provide vital childcare for families who need to get their incomes back up as they, hopefully, return to work.”

Well this is a less dramatic proposal but comes from a similar position. I think that there may be some merit in thinking about re arranging term dates but as much to assist teacher planning as for additional time for students. We obviously don’t know when we will be back and this is not an easy decision to get right -more for the health implications as anything else.  I’ll not develop that.

If schools are back in June/July it might be better to think about ending earlier and starting back in sometime in  August, but maintaining the length of the summer break. It’s complicated. But it is worth reflecting that some of the most successful systems in the world have far fewer days in school and less time in the school day than we have. Why is that? How do they achieve more with less?

So here are a few ideas I think we should at least be discussing. Just as the government this year has cancelled all the examinations, so I think they should take an additional full year to move back to ‘normality ‘ recognising the issues for years 5,10 and 12.

1. Move to a mixed assessment model with terminal examinations ( perhaps starting later mid June) but with some course work/teacher assessment built in. In some countries the national tests are seen as just one part of the assessment systems and almost a formative and moderating benchmarks that allow teachers to diagnose learning gaps and attend to them with additional assessment checks. We can’t bring exams earlier given the lost time, but certainly enabling teachers to impact on grades would be fair. Obviously this needs more thought and challenge. Is it not more important that our  students develop a deep understanding and knowledge of core concepts that a volume of material for tests.
2. If we have to have an accountability system like this, how about Progress 6, not Progress 8. This could mean that students focused on the most important subjects for their own individual goals and career intentions. They could still be taught a wide curriculum but it gives schools the scope to put more time into core subjects. In particular it is clear that large numbers of students have not been engaged by remote and digital learning for a wide range of reasons so this would, create space for remediation and support. Teachers could focus on student needs and not the school’s progress 8 score.
3. Let’s put our energies into great teaching and learning strategies. We know such a lot now about what approaches deliver a high effect size accelerating student progress and understanding. If the focus becomes a race to an exam date, the quality of learning will be poorer and the stress on students and teacher greater.
4. We should have learned a lot from this lock down. Talking to headteachers across the world they have been surprised by how some students have over performed against what teachers expected. They have thrived in this new remote digital learning environment. Of course this is clearly not true for all, but why has this happened? In many ways, this is because they have discovered a more blended way to learn. In parallel teachers have had to think about their role, their planning and the best way to support learning when the students are not in the room. This has been real experiential learning with teachers understanding the whole pedagogy behind blended learning. We need to use all this to enable more rapid learning and deeper understanding.

Kunskapsskolan’s personalised learning programme identifies 4 different elements that need to be created to ensure maximum impact. Creating a space where learning is more in the control of students (agency) enables personalised attention by the teacher to challenge, check for understanding and support. We will need this space So I’m calling out for a more optimistic an positive approach to school re opening. I’m asking us all to think about re engineering our school practice.

5. There are I’m sure, lots of other ideas, but we should also think about essential content. Could there be some optional elements where any examination gives students a choice – either /or. This may not be right for Maths and English for instance, but we should ask whether the comprehensive body of knowledge is as important as is thought. Especially at times like this.

So I’m calling us to reflect on these new approaches so we are more research-informed going forward. I’m calling for people to back off – OFSTED included – for this coming year. Let’s turn all that resource into support for schools rather than inspecting and making external judgement. Let’s focus on our students and their well- being. Let’s trust our schools and teachers and boost their self-worth as we emerge stronger and with greater understanding of the importance of strong relationships between teachers, students and parents. Let’s re-read John Hattie’s work and recognise the importance of high expectations, trust, and  teacher efficacy. Let’s re-read David Hopkins’ work on Curiosity and Powerful Learning and put our energies into consistent protocols for teaching and learning.

When I write a blog like this, I sense that some will see this as another example of a liberal progressive view of education even putting me into what  Michael  Gove called the BLOB. I hope it is. But don’t believe any of these actions would be easy. School leaders and teachers are ready to step up, especially when they recognise that there is an environment that focuses on students well being, and that the profession is respected and trusted to use their evident skills to get this right. We need our profession to feel valued as much as we need our students to feel encouraged and re-motivated.

We, at the new International Centre for Educational Enhancement at the University of Bolton, are starting to research what has been happening over the last two months. That way we can provide more informed advice for the staggered opening of our schools. Do contact me urgently if your school would like to be involved.