I wrote to my MSP yesterday about returning schools full time in August (I’m going to email the regional ones today, thanks for the tip whoever it was!). Here’s what I’ve said (I’ve deleted some specific details to try and not be too identifying)
Dear Mr X
I am writing to you concerning the current educational crisis that has resulted from the coronavirus pandemic. As both a parent and a teacher within your constituency, I am extremely concerned by the long-term damage that is being inflicted on our children as a result of school closures and the plans for blended learning from August. With two months to continue to monitor both the infection and death rates from coronavirus, to fully implement the track, trace and isolate policy, and to examine evidence from other countries that have reopened schools, I strongly urge you to reconsider your plans to only offer education on a part time basis to the children of Scotland.
While the decision to close schools in March because of the potential risks to pupils, staff and the wider community was the best available at that point in time, we are now long past that stage. Infection rates and deaths have now fallen dramatically from the peak of the crisis. I am sure you are aware that only one death has been recorded across ... in the last fortnight, 9 covid- positive patients are currently in ....Hospital and only 6 new infections have been identified in the last week across the .....Health Board. Furthermore, today’s NRS figures show that overall death rates across Scotland are now at a level that is statistically within the normal range of deaths at this time of year (37 in excess of the 5 year average of 1056), and only 12 new infections have been identified today.
Considering we are now at a point where infections and deaths are at extremely low levels both nationally and locally, and schools will not be reopening for another two months, I do not understand why the Scottish Government is continuing to pursue blended learning as the first choice plan for the new session. I would absolutely agree that planning for blended learning as a contingency measure is essential, but this should only be needed if there is change from the current low levels. Despite the high levels of infections and deaths across Scotland, not a single person under the age of 15 has died. I struggle to understand why the children of Scotland should continue to have to pay such a heavy price in terms of their future life chances because of a disease that primarily affects those over 75.
Although .... have yet released details of their blended learning offer, from other councils it appears that the usual offer is of 2 – 2.5 days a week in school, and that this is being planned for until at least December. At the close of this session children will have lost approximately 310 hours of face to face contact time with their teachers. If blended learning is to continue into next term, and only 2 days a week in school is possible until December, another 285 hours of face to face learning will be lost. As a teacher attempting to deliver online learning to pupils within your constituency, I can assure you that it is a very poor substitute for in-school learning. I have faced huge levels of stress and anxiety over the last three months knowing what a poor experience myself and other colleagues (despite their incredible hard work) are offering our children.
As I am sure you are aware, the children who are most affected by this are those who already face huge disadvantages in life. In this I would include the large number of children who live in poverty within your constituency, those who have Additional Support Needs, those who have English as an Additional Language and those whose parents are struggling with their own mental health needs. My role has me teaching some of your most vulnerable constituents – I know them, their families, and the struggles they face on a daily basis and now I see the educational devastation that this crisis is causing them. Blended learning will be able to offer them what they need in order to have an adequate level of education, and this will only increase the poverty-related attainment gap. I personally see very few pupils in these groups engaging with any online learning due to a myriad of reasons, only one of which is their lack of access to technology. Simply providing them with a laptop will not fix the underlying barriers they face. They need to be in school full time as of August, as do the rest of the children of Scotland.
On a personal level, having my own child attend school for 2 days a week is going to cause huge stress on our family. My husband and I both work in demanding, full time jobs and simply do not have the capacity to effectively support continued home-learning. Our situation is not in the slightest bit unique, and I fear that it will mainly be women who pay the price of this through being forced to give up work to support their children or being side-lined by their employers because of their inability to work during normal office hours. Although my children are still very young and so I worry less about the educational impact, I can see the effect on their wellbeing of being largely confined to their home with no interaction with other children for the last 11 weeks. They need to be in school and nursery as the level of risk to their emotional wellbeing and social development is far higher than that of the effects of coronavirus
I look forward to hearing from you regarding this matter.