SCHOOLS across Wyre Forest are racing to put in place teaching and support for thousands of pupils learning from home as well as on-site provision for vulnerable children and those of key workers following Monday's lockdown announcement.
The Severn Academies Educational Trust (SAET), which runs several schools in the district, confirmed Kidderminster’s Baxter College and Stourport High School opened today (Tuesday) to 70 pupils in total from the priority groups and remote online learning has also started.
Several primary schools, which are part of the trust, including Stourport Primary Academy and Hartlebury CE Primary, are spending today gearing up for home learning and to provide on-site provision for those who need it from this week.
The government’s decision to close schools as part of the third lockdown came after weeks of campaigning from SAET for more positive action to curb the rise in Covid-19 cases.
Trust chief executive Chris King said: “Like other trusts, we wanted to move to remote learning a week early before Christmas but the government refused to allow that. We saw this coming and the decision to close should have been made earlier.
“Taking the remote learning to half-term does give us some stability and I suspect that length of time is needed to assess the impact of lockdown on the virus.”
Mr King predicts online learning will be better than previously as the systems have developed and staff and pupils are now more experienced in using them but said there was an “urgent need” for the government to provide resources so that all pupils can access it.
He said schools were having to prioritise resources according to need with paper packs being provided where needed.
Mr King also acknowledged that the long-term effect of school closures on this generation of children was difficult to predict.
He said: “A lot depends on individual circumstances but certainly the disadvantaged gap nationally will need even more work to close for years to come.”
SAET wants to see school and teacher assessment for this year’s GCSE and A level grades with “clear guidance on how the grades should be arrived at and no attempts at algorithms” for which the government came under criticism last summer.
No guidance has yet been sent to schools regarding the sitting of BTEC exams and Mr King said those planned for tomorrow are currently expected to go-ahead.
He added: “For this year’s exam takers, we have to get their grades right and moving forward, the impact of this lost classroom time needs to be recognised in the system until all those affected leave school.
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"We have a pupil premium fund each year to support disadvantaged children. I would like to see an ongoing Covid-19 fund too to support catch up.”
The roll-out of the government’s planned mass testing in schools had already started prior to last night’s announcement, with kits delivered to high schools including Baxter College and Stourport High School.
Mr King said: “At the moment, those staff coming into our schools will be tested as planned weekly along with the priority group pupils.”
He also said staff were “anxious" about the increased spread of the virus but "in good spirits" and working hard to support children and their families.
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