Education

by Arlene

A lot of plans have changed this year.

My elder daughter, in first year at University in March 2020, had her year cut short, and had to return home to isolate with me. She has felt a little like she was just spreading her wings, when they were suddenly clipped. Luckily, the move home was made easy by the University, who released her from her accommodation contract without a quibble, refunded her the last month rent, and transferred all of her learning to online and remote work.

Big shout out to the University of Edinburgh, who have been really supportive, and who have been clear about how they intend to deliver learning this year. She is now back in Edinburgh, following the rules, and staying as safe.

Sadly, my younger daughter has missed out on a lot this year. Like many other P7 pupils, she should have spent the final term of her time at primary school getting ready to move on to secondary, and that hasn’t happened. This is a huge rite of passage, which she has not been able to have.

Her primary school did not handle lockdown teaching well. They had the capability to teach remotely, and already had a system in place which allowed them to upload work, and stream recorded lessons, they just didn’t use it. For the first two months of lockdown they persisted with the message that the school would be back before the end of term, and they would have plenty of time to catch up. In the face of all the evidence, they stuck to the delusion, and didn’t offer more than the regular homework tasks with a daily ‘chat’ with their teacher.

By the time they acknowledged that the school would not be returning, it was too late. Parents had either taken matters into their own hands, and were following their own teaching pattern (there are many excellent resources out there) or were struggling to get their children to engage on any level at all with their schoolwork. I took the first option, and with lots of input from her sister, we managed a pretty good timetable of learning.

What we couldn’t replace easily was the social aspect of her spending time with her school friends and classmates. We arranged some virtual time with her close friends, but it couldn’t make up for her missing out on the school discos, plays, parties, and fairs that populate the summer term.

Lots of primary schools handled lockdown really well, and made their pupils feel supported and valued throughout lockdown teaching, but that wasn’t our experience. Additionally, in a normal year she would have attended her secondary school for orientation days, and a range of activities designed to help her feel familiar with the school and prepare her for a different style of teaching. Like most other pupils her age, she has missed out on this.

Starting secondary can be daunting at the best of times, but when you add to this the feeling that they haven’t quite ‘finished’ with primary school, concerns about whether they will struggle with the work, and very real fears about being infected with a potential deadly virus, it has made for a difficult first term. The secondary school have a very robust COVID-19 policy, detailing movement around the school, contact with teachers, seating and lunch arrangements and social distancing. On paper. In practice the reality is very different. It’s hard to understand why, since the vast majority of pupils are understanding and supportive of social distancing and mask wearing. They don’t live in a bubble, unaware of the dangers of COVID-19 to their parents and wider family, but with unenforced rules the message about how they should stay safe is confusing.

At the beginning of the term in August, all pupils were promised a one-to-one meeting with their guidance teacher to talk about their experience of lockdown, how they felt about being in school again, and talk about any concerns they have. Amy had her meeting yesterday, 12 weeks after school started, 10 weeks into the teaching year. It was not with her guidance teacher, but with a member of admin staff she didn’t know or trust.

I would complain, but it will just lead to another paper exercise, listening to my concerns then spewing out platitudes about how they are implementing policies and guidelines in this difficult time. Blah, blah, blah. I fear that once again, I will need to take matters into my own hands, and withdraw her from school if my health is at risk. I’m looking into S1 coursework, just in case.