The Impact of COVID-19 School Closures on Education Inequality in London
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Appendix 1 London Assembly Education Panel – 30 September 2020 Transcript of Agenda Item 9 – The Impact of COVID-19 School Closures on Education Inequality in London Jennette Arnold OBE AM (Chair): That brings us to today’s main item for discussion on the impact of COVID-19 school closures on education inequality in London. Can I welcome our guests? We have Joanne McCartney, Deputy Mayor for Education and Childcare - welcome, Joanne - and Stuart Darke, Regional Organiser, Greater London Regional Centre, for the NASUWT. Welcome, Stuart. I did check earlier, and I think everybody is happy with first name terms. We have with us Rebecca Montacute, Research and Policy Manager, Sutton Trust; Rob Coe, Senior Associate, Education Endowment Foundation (EEF); and Sarah Wilkins, Senior Manager, Education and Youth Team, Greater London Authority (GLA). It is nice when we know the public are following us and are interested in our work. A constituent has set out the impact that school closures are having on her, and the testing regime, and I just thought I would read in what she had to say to me: “Dear Jennette, I have three children. My middle child returned to school on Thursday, 10 September. On Monday, 28 September, we received a letter from the school telling us that she needed to self-isolate for two weeks as a close contact had tested positive for coronavirus. By the time she returns to school, she will have spent barely 50% of this academic year at school. This could also be a recurring problem. There is no limit on the amount of time students may have to self-isolate this year. With no access to testing to ascertain who needs to isolate, there is no guarantee that my children will be able to attend school regardless of whether schools are open or not. She could return to school after two weeks or a few days and then be expected to self-isolate again for two weeks. Lockdown has disproportionately affected her, especially as she did not have her own personal laptop. During the summer we did manage to be able to afford one and she is now able to do her schoolwork. The impact on our family has been immense. I shudder to think what effect this is having on families who are in a less beneficial situation to ours.” I just think that sets the scene. To all our guests, if they could just briefly respond to this opening question for the session because it is so topical. Given what you have just heard from that mum and its impact on her family, and that all the conversation at the moment is about the lack of testing across London and England, what information do you have in terms of how the lack of testing is impacting on the ground in schools? Do you want to come through on that? Who wants to give me a response to that? Stuart? Stuart Darke (Regional Organiser - Greater London Regional Centre, NASUWT): I do not mind kicking off, Chair. I think what you describe and the letter you have had from your constituent is being replicated across London. The world-beating Test and Trace system or the world-beating testing system is not working, and this is going to be a recurring issue for schools. We do hear from our members where students are being asked to self-isolate or groups or students are being asked to self-isolate, there is not the testing in place. Schools very rapidly went through their ten tests that they were given and of course can order more but that, I think, is going to be a recurring problem, and so you are going to have those pressures in the system and it is going to lead to other things, which I am sure we will get on to today as well, with how teachers cope with the children being out, groups of children being out of school and groups of children being in school as well. Jennette Arnold OBE AM (Chair): Thank you. The Deputy Mayor has indicated she wants to come in. Joanne McCartney (Deputy Mayor for Education and Childcare): Yes, thank you. This is a really important topic and I thank the Panel for looking at this. Last week I held a roundtable with approximately 12 headteachers and also college, and testing was by far the number one priority they were dealing with at the moment. They all talked about lack of testing and difficulties knowing what to do because the messaging was changing rapidly as well. They talked about having staff off awaiting tests or test results, or not even being able to get tests in the first place. They also talked about the fact that, while attendance had been very high in the first week, by the second week attendance was significantly lower as they had many children off because they themselves were ill and could not get tests. I think attendance is falling slightly too. The Mayor has recently written to Matt Hancock [MP], the Secretary of State for Health, urging him to prioritise testing for schools, early years settings and colleges, and we are pleased that teaching staff now do have priority but I think it is a case of wait and see as to whether that is actually taking place on the ground. Jennette Arnold OBE AM (Chair): Thank you for that, Deputy Mayor. Rob or Rebecca, anything to add? Rebecca Montacute (Research and Policy Manager, Sutton Trust): Yes, I would just say that the thing I found very striking in what your constituent spoke about - and I absolutely agree with what has been said in terms of a need for more testing because the more testing that you have, the easier it is to tell that somebody needs to isolate and you can reduce the number of people having to do that - is that no matter what, we are going to end up with students and staff isolating, even having a good testing system. I think your constituent very much pulled out the need for making sure that in the next few months, working from home for those students is possible when and where they need to do that. The Government have taken some positive steps in terms of providing laptops, first of all for disadvantaged year 10s and now that has been expanded to other year groups. The issue that has been coming out of that rollout is essentially getting the laptops to the kids as quickly as possible, and we have seen that there have been reports on the ground of it taking a very long time for them to get to kids. Our concern at this point is making sure that all of the students that need them - and we think there needs to be a focus on the most disadvantaged young people because they are the least likely to have access to the money to be able to afford that equipment themselves - are able to access schooling remotely when and where they do need to. Jennette Arnold OBE AM (Chair): Thank you very much. Rob, anything to add? Rob Coe (Senior Associate, Education Endowment Foundation): No, I do not think I have anything useful to add to what has been said already. Jennette Arnold OBE AM (Chair): OK. I will go back to Rebecca. A lot of people talk about year 10, but isn’t every year important? I love year 7s, let me put my hand up, and I have my own year 7 so this is really personal, but they have been traumatised. They did not have for their time for their parties to disengage because it hit them when they were planning that. Now they are in big school and they do not have the kit. Rebecca, somebody is picking up the other years. I know the importance of year 10, but if you are not supported from year 7 upwards, what is going to happen? Rebecca Montacute (Research and Policy Manager, Sutton Trust): I believe the Government have now said that year 3 to year 11 disadvantaged students will be given laptops. I do not think we have enough information yet on how well that rollout has gone and whether or not those laptops are getting to those young people. There is also the issue, obviously, of people in colleges and 16-to-19 education of any sort. There is currently, I think, no specific policy to enable them to have laptops if they need them. I would also say there has been a great effort by some academy trusts, some businesses and lots of external organisations to try to provide laptops to young people to fill those gaps as well, so there will hopefully be people going above and beyond. Community groups as well, actually, have been putting together old laptops to get them out to schoolkids, so there really has been an effort across society to try to get them out. We do not know enough at the moment about how many young people still need them and that would be something quite useful to know now. Jennette Arnold OBE AM (Chair): Sorry, Joanne, did you want to add something before I put an additional question to Rebecca? Joanne McCartney (Deputy Mayor for Education and Childcare): Thank you. Just to add to the issue about the information technology (IT) devices, that also has come through very strongly from our discussions with schools. I think the Resolution Foundation did some research that showed through April to May children from better-off households had 30% more virtual education time than those from poorer backgrounds.