Partners: BSA Challenges and

CHALLENGES AND COMPLEXITIES

It’s been a busy start to the 2021–22 academic year. Robin Fletcher looks back at the Autumn Term, and what we might expect in the next few months.

Like every part of society, I’m sure the whole boarding community hoped COVID-19 would be well behind us by now. It’s not, but it is being managed, and our schools have coped extremely well. Schools have experienced varying case numbers, but none have been forced to close. There’s no such thing as ‘easy’ during a pandemic, but relatively speaking, it is easier to manage cases in boarding schools, given their controlled, self-contained environments. Rapid learning throughout the pandemic means it is now very much part of the business model of running a school and will be for some time yet.

International travel

Anything which requires international travel, however, continues to present challenges. The main complication around COVID for our schools will come at the end and beginning of term. A school might have an international student due to y back home and there might be local rules there around re-entering. It’s possible a student who has recently had COVID may not have been able to get their vaccination, or they may be in the wrong age group to get vaccinated, so there are still many complexities around travel for schools to negotiate.

BSA has been working with the Department for ducation, ome ffi ce and other go ernment departments, as well as the devolved administrations and foreign governments, to support boarding pupils who’ve been affected.

Recruitment

As well as managing the health and wellbeing of existing students, schools also continue to face challenges around boarder recruitment. We saw a dip in boarding numbers in the May 2021 ISC Census, primarily because students were prevented from travelling by the pandemic. Numbers appear to have bounced back in the Autumn, but recruitment challenges of course remain. Enquiries have been strong though, and parents are keen for their children to return, so we expect to see healthier numbers when the next ISC Census is published early in 2022.

Staff wellbeing

The other key factor is the health and wellbeing of staff, many of whom have been working in extraordinary circumstances for almost two years now. If boarding staff need to work over a holiday because a school has had to stay open, or they need to look after students who’ve been unable to return home, it will place further pressure on them, and not everyone will manage that situation in the same way.

There’s clearly a need for everyone to take a wellearned break, and schools are doing everything they can to support their staff with this. We’ve also boosted the support available to schools by launching the Health in Education Association (HIEDA), a dedicated organisation providing training and support to members on health and wellbeing matters. ●

ROBIN FLETCHER

is CEO of the Boarding Schools’ Association (BSA) and BSA Group.