Dulwich school headteacher criticises haste, measures and highlights questions over motives for forcing schools to return on March 8

A top headteacher has criticised the government’s roadmap for a quick return to schools on March 8, only five working days away.

Steve Morrison, head of Kingsdale Foundation School in Alleyn Park, Dulwich, has spoken out after the measures he has to take for his hundreds of pupils were confirmed last week – but shifted several times over the next few days.

Classroom managers have been left trying to keep up with the measures first announced by education secretary Gavin Williamson on Monday February 22.

The 67-page guidance set out 19 different areas for action to be in place in nine working days. 

Mr Morrison said: “Building up false expectations is likely to generate both confusion and complaints.

“If reopening schools is so vital, the absence of any priority plan to vaccinate teaching staff, and the effects that staff absence might have on undermining a successful reopening, appear to have been underestimated.

“The government’s strategy on school-based testing, whilst well-intentioned, has been too hasty and ill thought through, resulting in embarrassing backtracking.

“There is a belief in some quarters the premature actions are simply to assuage concerns raised by the COVID
Recovery Group of Conservative MPs rather than doing the best thing for schools.”

He also said preparations for contact testing in January led to “more confusion, uncertainty and wasted work on the part of colleagues in schools”.

Government chaos over asymptomatic testing and contact testing, and a constantly changing timetable, had also led to huge and pointless confusion, he added.

The latest guidance is again a change of government policy, moving schools to a mass testing model for a short period after the return, followed by home-testing for both staff and students.

“The original requirement to mass test all students returning to school from Monday 8 March three times, with a 3-5 day break between tests, was always doomed to failure,” said Mr Morrison.

 It would have meant Kingsdale carrying out 7,500 tests in a two-week period, while recruiting and training scores of volunteer parents.

Nor is home testing realistic, he said. “Many parents and students will lack the time or capacity to conduct it twice weekly as required,” he said. “There are also significant questions as to whether [staff and parents] will want to conduct the tests and inform the school about a positive test, given the effect this will have on the child’s attendance to school and isolation status of household members.”

Schools will have to store and issue tests and tell parents about results. “Home-testing for staff, away from the current school-based model, raises the same question,” he said.

Nor did the government’s stance recognise “the significant concerns of families about returning to school in the face of new variants”, he added.

“The scale of the logistical challenge facing schools in implementing the guidance, whilst also running full remote learning packages, suggests lessons have not been learnt. 

“Nevertheless, it is a big improvement on the 72 hours schools got to prepare last summer over a weekend.

“During his speech on Monday 22 February to Parliament, the Prime Minister justified the haste by reiterating that schools were allegedly safe environments. The PM made reference to the proximity of the Easter holidays and the natural break this afforded in managing any increases in transmission.

“However, he stated Monday 29 March as the start of this school break, which is the start of the holidays for most public schools – not state schools, which close later.

“Whilst the familiar piecemeal subsequent information drip-fed by the Department for Education (DFE) allowed schools the common sense flexibility to stagger the return of students over a two week period, building up false expectations in the first instance is likely to generate both confusion and complaints.”

Full text of Mr Morrison’s statement: 

The 67 page guidance covering complex matters released late on Monday 22nd February encompasses 19 different areas for action or consideration to be in place in 9 working days. The scale of the logistical challenge facing schools in implementing the guidance whilst also running full remote learning packages suggests lessons have not been learnt. Nevertheless, it is a big improvement on the 72 hours schools got to prepare last Summer over a weekend.

During his speech on Monday 22nd February to Parliament, the Prime Minister justified the haste by reiterating that schools were allegedly safe environments. The PM made reference to the proximity of the Easter holidays and the natural break this afforded in managing any increases in transmission.

However, he stated Monday 29th March as the start of this school break, which is the start of the holidays for most public schools – not state schools which close later.

Whilst the familiar piecemeal subsequent information drip fed by the DFE allowed schools the common sense flexibility to stagger the return of students over a two week period, building up false expectations in the first instance is likely to generate both confusion and complaints. There is a belief in some quarters the premature actions are simply to assuage concerns raised by the COVID Recovery Group of Conservative MPs rather than doing the best thing for schools.

If reopening schools is so vital, the absence of any priority plan to vaccinate teaching staff (even within age groups) and the effects that staff absence might have on undermining a successful reopening appear to have been underestimated.

The government’s strategy on school-based testing whilst well-intentioned has been too hasty and ill thought through resulting in embarrassing backtracking.

The extremely rushed introduction of asymptomatic testing (AT) in schools, due then to commence in January 2021, caused confusion, anxiety and considerable extra workload. For instance, initially schools were informed that AT would commence at the start of the Spring term 21, even though there was a lack of clarity as to when the testing kits would arrive. Schools were effectively required to prepare for mass testing of large cohorts as government guidance on which students, if any, would return in January 2021, was very unclear and subject to last minute change. In fact, many colleagues spent much of their holiday gearing up for mass testing, only to be told later that schools would not in fact reopen at the start of the Spring term.

This situation has been compounded by the fact that schools geared up for both mass and contact testing to commence in January 2021. Contact testing (highly questionable from our point of view anyway) was subsequently shelved by the government and looks likely not to be resurrected resulting in more confusion, uncertainty and wasted work on the part of colleagues in schools.

The latest guidance is again a change of government policy, moving schools to a mass testing model for a short return period, followed by a home-testing model for both staff and students. Schools are also required to maintain a small on-site AT provision for the foreseeable future.

The original requirement to mass test all students returning to school from Monday 8th March 2021 three times, with a 3-5 day break between tests was always doomed to failure. In our situation, this would mean ~7,500 tests in a two-week period. While some funding is promised, we are having to recruit and train a sizeable number of parental volunteers.

Home-testing is a questionable strategy as it is clear that many parents and students will lack the time or capacity to conduct it twice weekly as required. There are also significant questions as to whether stakeholders will want to conduct the tests and subsequently inform the school in the event of a positive test, given the effect this will have on the child’s attendance to school and isolation status of household members. There are also resourcing issues for schools on how the tests are actually stored and issued and the communications this will entail. Home-testing for staff, away from the current school-based model, raises the same question The unenforceable u-turn requirement for the wearing of face coverings in classroom settings by students is another case of over optimistic wishful thinking.

The updated guidance states that students should unrealistically not use public transport (in London) to travel to and from school unless absolutely necessary.

Schools will be required to record absences officially from Monday 8th March 2021. Attendance is therefore mandatory. Schools will presumably be held to account for such attendance and as such, this model does not recognise the significant concerns of students and families about returning to school in the face of new variants.