Coronavirus

Only when it is safe

As the pressure grows to reopen fully from September, our policy teams have produced advice and guidance to help leaders base their decisions on what is safe.

WITH some trepidation, leaders began to open their schools more widely last month. In preparation, many hours were spent working on plans, and then adapting them as the Department for Education (DfE) issued guidance bit by bit, often late in the evening. Sometimes – just to add to the confusion – it was at odds with advice from elsewhere.

A case in point: the huge amount of confusion caused when SAGE experts said rotas were the safest way to bring back children, only for the DfE to issue its own guidance saying rotas should not be used.

Since March, a flurry of new guidance – on average two to three changes a day – has dropped into leaders’ inboxes. By June, more than 300 documents had landed.

In the climate of uncertainty created by Covid-19, leaders’ need for clear guidance from Government, together with the flexibility to use it in a way that makes sense in their school’s context, has never been greater. Unfortunately, that need is not being met.

Ahead of the desperately needed summer break, and just days after schools were forced to close again in Leicester after lockdown was reimposed, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson insisted it was vital all schools reopened fully in September. He had already, of course, been forced to drop his plans for all primary pupils to return for a month before the holidays.

Scientists are warning of a second spike of coronavirus in the autumn, which makes planning even harder. The union has always been clear that schools should only open more widely when it is safe, and we have been producing advice and guidance on how to assess risk since the outbreak of the pandemic.

neu.org.uk/coronavirus-leaders

1) Meeting the NEU’s five tests In May, the union published five tests that should be met before schools reopen. They are: much lower numbers of Covid-19 cases, a national plan for social distancing, a national test and trace system, protocols for when a case of Covid appears in a school or college and protection for the vulnerable. Increasingly, it is being recognised that decisions need to be made by heads based on their local context as the lockdown in Leicester has shown. In some parts of the country, infection rates are still high, while in others they have come down significantly. The local director of public health can provide information about infection rates in your area.

There is a clear difference in the R value (infection rate) across the country, so local information is key.

It is important to note that as Lead went to press, the Government had yet to launch a reliable national test and trace system. 2) Risk assessment for wider opening The many issues you need to consider when planning for wider reopening are covered in the guidance the union has developed to be used in conjunction with joint union checklists for different sectors: primary schools and early years, secondary schools and colleges, and special schools and pupil referral units.

The guidance includes staffing, site capacity – including how you will comply with social distancing rules – travel to and from the site, what to do if there is a suspected case of Covid-19 during the working day, hygiene and cleaning and PPE.

neu.org.uk/advice/coronavirus-wideropening-schools-colleges

3) Higher-risk staff Assessing the risk to your staff is a key part of planning for wider opening. The union has published Coronavirus: ensuring safety for staff at higher risk.

The NEU is firm in its advice that staff who are in clinically vulnerable groups, or who live with or care for household members in clinically vulnerable groups, should not be required to return to the workplace and should instead be allowed to work at home.

This should be determined by the individual risk assessment. In cases of disagreement about whether

individuals should be required to return to the workplace, the NEU advises that medical advice from the individual’s GP should be sought and considered.

When employees are working at home, they should in all cases receive full pay and this time should not be treated as a period of leave, either paid or unpaid.

We know that Black staff are at increased risk from Covid-19 and the DfE has confirmed to the NEU that “schools should be especially sensitive” to the needs and concerns of Black staff, parents and pupils. This advice should be followed in all schools and colleges.

A report by Public Health England found different rates of increased risk are faced by different groups of Black adults, with mortality rates in the period studied ranging from 102 per cent higher for people from a Bangladeshi background to six per cent higher for people from a Black African heritage.

Ethnicity must, therefore, form part of every employer’s risk assessment with regards to individual staff.

neu.org.uk/advice/coronavirusensuring-safety-staff-higher-risk

4) Blended learning With the threat of an autumn spike in cases, it is increasingly likely that schools will need to continue to operate on a rota basis during the autumn term. The possibility of a second spike means that pupils and staff are likely to need to self-isolate at very short notice, in many cases without actually developing the illness themselves.

Therefore, the union believes leaders need to plan for delivering education differently in the immediate and longer-term future. Blended learning – the combination of home and school learning – is included in the NEU’s tenpoint national education recovery plan.

Blended learning should be more than planning online and remote lessons, with thought being given to how face-toface interaction will support and enhance remote learning. Teachers must be given time to think this through in a coherent and planned way.

The NEU’s guidance on blended learning is based on five principles. Blended learning should be safe, fair, realistic, manageable, and forward-looking.

Importantly, wider school opening has the potential to increase workload exponentially, as teachers plan lessons for in-school and remote learning. Blended learning must not make teachers’ workload unmanageable. Staffing must be managed so that staff have adequate breaks during the day, and teachers must be given PPA time on a weekly basis, which can be taken at home. Support staff must not be expected to be in classes or with children all day, and must be given adequate breaks including a lunch break away from the children.

Pressures on head teachers and other senior leaders have been high in developing this blended approach, not helped by the lack of clarity in guidance from Government, the numerous changes to the guidance, and the expectation that head teachers will make high pressured decisions about the safety of their schools when there is little consensus on the science.

This has added to the pressure that many have faced by being on site almost constantly as schools have been open, and the need to provide support for families in need with food, delivering creative packs and other necessary resources for learning, and signposting to other support services. Wider opening will add to these pressures, and senior leaders should consider how you will manage your own workload, through sharing and delegating responsibilities where possible, and what support you can access, to make this period manageable.

neu.org.uk/advice/coronavirusmanaging-blended-approaches