Q&A with Vicky Ford MP, Children's Minister, about return to school for all children

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to announce a Q&A with Vicky Ford, Conservative MP for Chelmsford and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, about next week’s return to school in England for those children who’ve been learning at home during lockdown.

If you have any questions about how children can catch up with lost learning, how exam results will be approached, what the situation is like for children with SEN and additional needs, how the testing regimen will work, and what safety measures will be expected, now’s your chance to ask.

This is a non-live Q&A: we’ll be collecting your questions until midday on Thursday March 4, and Vicky’s answers will be posted up on this thread on Friday March 5.

As always, please remember our guidelines - please keep it civil, and if one topic is dominating a thread, we might request that people don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point. Rest assured we will ALWAYS let the guest know that it's an area of concern to multiple users and will encourage them to engage with those questions.

And with that it’s over to you for your questions.

Thanks
MNHQ

What guidelines and support will be given to schools to ensure that EHCP provision is met? Despite "best endeavours" measures ending in September and despite it being a legally binding document, many schools still aren't offering all measures contained with EHCPs and are citing covid as the reason why. It's certainly a very widely discussed subject in the disabled parenting groups I am on so definitely not restricted to one school or one region.

A lot of the most disadvantaged kids have fallen even further behind at school.

This will set them even further away from having equal opportunities in life.

What will you do to make sure that children who did not have parents who helped them with schoolwork/space and tech to work on/private education etc will not fall behind and be even more disadvantaged?

Hello Vicky.

I can't wait for my kids to go back to school - so first up thank you for opening them again. But I'm worried about the teachers (who also have their own kids!) - why could we not vaccinate them first ahead of healthy people who are working from home?

My 29 year old healthy friend was vaccinated last week - meanwhile teachers will be literally risking their lives and the lives of those around them when they go back to school. I hate thinking that my kids may put them in danger inadvertently.

And I'm sorry but saying 'it's easier to do it this way' like I've heard on the news just makes people feel treated like idiots. It's clearly quite straightforward to priorities teachers as a group in administering the vaccines - and it's quite clear that they will be in one of the most high-risk jobs from next week.

So please could we vaccinate teachers next?

Thanks so much.

If Mr Biden can vaccinate all America's teachers by the end of the month why can't we ? Most outbreaks now seem to be in prisons as 'they are crowded places where social distancing can not be maintained'. Schools are the same so why no extra safety measures. Windows don't always open.

Why didn’t the governments hone schooling policy put the needs of working parents first? Particularly for primary aged children. For 9 weeks I’ve worked a 5am-9pm day whilst trying (often failing) to fit in two sets of primary homeschooling. Children that age can’t learn independently. Why weren’t we just issued with a national workbook to just keep everyone ticking over? Instead I’ve been wracked with guilt trying to deliver bullshit RE/PE/Music as well as all the essentials. It is a catastrophic failure and I feel totally violated and upset that my children are now disadvantaged. Honestly, the government could have teamed up with CGP and issued a homelearning workbook, freed teachers to be in better contact and made life much easier for working parents. I feel so bitter about the whole situation. And don’t get my started on the fact that stay at home parents of under 5s have still be allowed to use nurseries.

Which scenario do you think will affect a child’s education and life chances the most.

A) a child with a CEV parent continues remote learning until the end of the school year.

B) a child with a CEV parent attends school in person and contracts COVID-19 at school. The virus is then passed to the CEV shielding parent who subsequently is seriously unwell in ICU or dies.

I agree please vaccinate the teachers. For their peace of mind and health but also as it was mainly staff shortage due to illness or isolation causing bubbles to be sent home last year.

Many children with SEN who are preparing for a phase transfer havent been allocated a school by the statutory deadline of the 15th Feb. (fot year 3 or 7) and many thousands of children with SEN are currently without a school place or in a very unsuitable place. Msny were totally abandoned during lockdown. My own son was given just 1 hour of education he could access.
When my son sees news reports that 'all children' are returning to school he knows that for him that means 2 half day sessions and no school place at all next year.
When is the government going to tackle SEND.

I'm concerned about the extracurricular activities that children have missed out on as well as academic work.

How is the government planning to support music, sport and arts activities to make sure that they can and do take place safely and are not de-prioritised behind core academic learning?

Thank you

It’s now two months since exams were cancelled and Y11 and Y13 students still do not know how they are going to be assessed as the Ofqual announcement passed the buck to exam boards and schools to come up with their own approaches.

Why was there no back-up plan already in place for the eventuality that exams had to be cancelled again (as they indeed were), and why was apparently no consideration given to the mental health of teens regarding the impact of this announcement with no plan?

How will you protect teachers and schools from the inevitable fallout in the summer when results are found to be inconsistent/inflated compared to previous years due to the lack of a national approach or leadership from the DfE on this?

In addition, what plans are being put in place now to ensure that exams next year happen in a fair and reliable fashion, and when will the details of these be published so that current Y10 and Y12 can continue their courses confident in how they will be assessed and that the impact of the pandemic will be taken into account?

Thank you.

Children in exam years have been very stressed out and not learnt at home as well as they do when in school.
Are the grades they will be given 'working at grades'?
Surely they will ALL have been disadvantaged to normal years so will ALL be behind?
How will the grading make up for that?
For example a GCSE child currently scoring a 3 in maths could have easily scored a 4 if they had full face to face teaching.
The difference between a grade 3 and 4 is another whole year of school as they have to get a grade 4 to pass.
Is this fair on them? Or are you advising teachers to make them up?

How are you going to improve access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health? Particularly in respect to reducing waiting times? It is dire. A child should not have to wait 9-10 months to receive help following suicide attempts. Expecting families to keep children safe without ANY support is unacceptable. Services need funding. What are you going to do about this?

I have 2 children in exam years who still do not know how they are to be assessed and nor do their teachers. Waiting until after Easter to be given some clues from the exam boards is way too late. What assurances can you give that whatever the details are, the results will be fair and reliable across the country? Not deemed ‘mickey mouse’ and grossly inflated but grades that not only allow progression to the next stage but also allow them to be proud of their achievements?

Not too sure if you’ll be in a position to answer my first question (mental health related) as it seems the Q&A session is regarding return to school.

Hello

What do you think young school-age children have missed out on as a result of the lockdown?

If there is anything lacking ... do you think this is resolved by extra lesson time or is there a need to for something else?

Thank you

Hello Minister.

From Monday face coverings are “recommended” for everyone from Year 7 upwards inside school buildings, where social distancing is not possible. This is for a limited time, to be reviewed at Easter according to the data.

What data will be used and how? Will it be general population infection /hospitalisation /death rates, or infection rates and absences in secondary and middle schools (plus colleges and HE)?

If the latter, how will the data inform the subsequent decision for the Summer term? That is, if rates are low and steady or even falling, will that signify that masks are working and should be retained? Or that there is no need for masks and they should be kept out of classrooms? Conversely, will high and/or rising rates mean that masks have not worked, or that there is great need for them and they must be retained as an infection control measure?

Thank you.

Minister:

1. Has the Secretary of State for education/dept of Education given any thought to the educational, physical, emotional and mental needs of children who are required to shield at home as a result of Covid 19?
2. If so, why have they failed to raise this issue with teaching unions and the public?
3. If so, please provide detail and confirm when the written plans will be published.
4. If not, will you concede that it is a shockingly unacceptable omission which needs to be immediately rectified?
5. If not, will you commit to setting out a roadmap within 24 hours detailing how this inequality will be rectified/ what steps are to be taken to address this issue, providing timescales for same?

My child does not need summer school or longer days. My child does need to get back to seeing her family and friends, going to swimming lessons and so on. My child does need her teachers to be vaccinated. It’s not complicated. Can you help this happen?

Hello Vicky,

The school I work at suffered terribly last term with CAMHS refusing to see pupils face to face (fine for school staff obviously) and that has caused lasting damage to many of our pupils.

Now that CAMHS employees have been vaccinated (as opposed to teachers), what will be done about their continued refusal to see children in person?

Hello Vicky,

I am a teacher and I am concerned about children with SEND. Throughout the autumn term we tried our best to support these children but other professionals refused to come to school, stating it was too risky. In particular, speech and language therapists refused to complete face to face assessments. Language development is absolutely crucial and it is time limited. What will the government be doing ensure that children with SEND get the face to face access to professionals they need?

Thank you.

What will be done to help EYFS age children who have fallen behind? How will they be identified?
Similar question to @Useruseruserusee I've got a child starting school in September but hasn't been assessed in person for speech and language issues, and it's unlikely they are going to catch up with all referrals before he starts school, let alone treatment.

Are you going to fund extracurricular activities as part of helping children catch up? They can add greatly to a child's learning despite not being in the traditional classroom environment.

What do you think about this study reported in the Times today that says:
The latest release from the programme includes details on rates in different professions for the first time. Public transport workers were twice as likely to test positive as others, while those working in “education, school, nursery or childcare” had an increased risk of between about 20 per cent and 40 per cent. Those able to work from home were at about a third lower risk than those who had to work outside.

apple.news/AwKUYX7apRmKatZc_uAx6Tw

How does this fit with the party line on refusing to vaccinate school staff as a priority?

Does the government hold data on how many children live in a household with someone who is clinically extremely vulnerable to coronavirus? This cohort of children are likely to have been more severely isolated than other families and will likely have more anxiety about returning to school and be in need of individual support. Things for children who are shielding are even more dire, will the government offer these families and the schools that support them a package of support? This could be access to technology to help them with their home learning, but equally counselling support or therapy to help them cope emotionally will be very important.

Will schools be sending home close contacts of positive cases or closing whole bubbles on the return to school?

There was a shift in my sons secondary school from whole bubbles to close contacts only being sent home in the event of a positive case and I was told this was in line with DfE advice. Which is fine, until you realise that they weren't contact tracing those students who travel by bus. (so, sit next to the positive case on the bus, no isolation, sit next to the same positive case in class and need to isolate).

What additional mental health support will be available for children on their return to school? As a pp mentioned, CAMHS waiting lists are already unacceptably long and my own dc, as well as others I know, found the return to school very stressful in the autumn term.

There has been so much focus on children "catching up" - are you not concerned that some children's mental health is going to suffer because of the pressure on them to catch up? Wouldn't it be better to re-set age-related expectations for all, and focus more on opportunities to socialise and get exercise?