A WIDENING achievement gap, budget pressures and schools working harder than ever under a new set of rules to protect pupils’ learning and ensure they thrive. Saiqa Chaudhari reports on the cost of the coronavirus on education

“WE have fantastic staff who have really put themselves second to the needs of the pupils, and especially my school principals who have been working harder and longer than I have ever seen,” says Simon Bramwell, the CEO of Vantage Academies Trust, which runs the outstanding SS Simon and Jude’s CE Primary School in Great Lever, as well as others throughout the North West.

Mr Bramwell, a former headteacher who established a reputation for driving up standards in schools, said it was important to keep schools open, but it has come at a cost to schools.

He explained how teams are working hard to move the education of pupils forward in the midst of more social and emotional issues and many absences of both staff and pupils.

He said: “I understand there has been a difficult balancing act between maintaining the health of the nation against maintaining the economic health of the nation.

“In many ways poverty is as potent an enemy as the virus, if slower-acting.

“Maintaining childcare for the key workers was of strategic importance during the early months of the pandemic and remains an enabling factor going forward across the second wave.

“However I am less worried about the temporary academic setback for our children than the emotional and social damage caused to them, especially in households that are strained at the best of times.

“We have seen a marked increase in children causing us concern, and without the daily contact with schools, I really do worry about a significant minority.

Mr Bramwell also pointed to the financial implications for schools.

He said: “There have been and continue to be financial costs that schools are having to bear. If a teacher needs to self-isolate because for example, their partner has Covid, the cost of supply cover will be around £1,500 for the 10 days. We have had schools with up to five teachers off at the same time ­- none of whom had Covid directly.

"Additional cleaning, PPE, longer lunchtimes due to smaller numbers and additional staff hours to cover that. All of these add to a bill that for some schools will become problematic.”

The digital divide has also been brought into sharp focus by the pandemic, as children are having to learn remotely if self-isolating.

Mr Bramwell said: “The achievement gap in our poorest pupils is evident to see.

“Delivering home online e-learning depends on homes having broadband, and a machine that will allow pupil access.

“For the youngest children it also depends on the parent’s ability to support that learning in the home, by organising the pupils to be online at a particular time for live lessons, taking pictures of work, submitting them back to school.

“Parents who are working from home are working, not always able to help when on a call or a Zoom meeting. The situation is variable, and we conducted an E-poverty survey that revealed that for example in the same school Year Two had 90 per cent with broadband and devices, while Year Six in the same school only had 40 per cent.

"Obviously, we send paper-based work home if required but our take-up surveys show rarely more than 50/60 per cent are engaging at home. For most pupils high-quality teaching in the next 18 months, if uninterrupted, will allow us to make up the deficit.

“For Year Six however that might be unrealistic to gain the loss of work from March to September, and some of our Year Six classes have been sent home twice since September. However hard we try, and we do, progress for most children is less when done remotely than it would be in class.”

Mr Bramwell said that clearer messages from government now would help schools, for example regarding Ofsted and SATs exams.

Performance tables are rarely a true reflection of a school, but any plans to publish them based on this academic year’s results “may well be more a measure of social divide than of academic excellence,” said Mr Bramwell.

He added: “I do however think that SATs as tests should be carried out internally by schools in 2021 and rely on teacher assessment informed as it always is by internal exams.

“I think that decision should be taken now, and would be a humane act for our pupils. Parents need to know where their children are, schools can tell them perfectly well. We can pass on information to secondary schools in a timely manner to allow them to plan for September 2021.

“Our concern for these most-affected pupils should be to make them secondary ready, with competent levels of maths and English, improved endurance and a clear work ethic to move forward.”