The understandable interest and focus on schools fully opening in September has once again taken the gaze away from colleges and their 700,000 16- to 18-year-old and 1.4 million adult students. That might be a good thing, given how the schools issue seems to be polarising ministers and staff unions. Good or bad, the arguments in the media about schools don’t make it any easier for college leaders as they finalise their plans for this autumn.

It’s worth starting by making the obvious assertion that colleges really are different to schools in so many ways -  the age of their students, the geographical footprint of where students travel from, sheer size, breadth of learning modes and subjects and in the mixture of full- and part-time learners. All very obvious, I know, but it means all too often that guidance for schools simply does not translate well for colleges and that the drivers, constraints and ambitions for reopening need to reflect that more than they have in recent months.

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Setting priorities

A good example of this is when colleges, like schools, were encouraged to open more fully in July to provide a face-to-face experience for their students. In a laudable but unhelpful attempt to limit numbers, the guidance allowed reopening only for 16- to 18-year-olds and not for adults, rather than allowing colleges to set their own priorities. That this came at the same time as pubs were able to reopen was at best an unfortunate coincidence, with some wondering why it was deemed more important for adults to be able to buy a drink than to complete their studies and qualifications.

With only a few weeks before the traditional start of the autumn term, colleges have been busily making their plans. The government’s advice and expectations seem clear - they want nurseries, schools and colleges to “fully open”. The unions, on the other hand are understandably concerned about how safe this is for their staff. And some commentators have questioned how far this might contribute to further flare-ups in numbers infected.

All very confusing and worrying for college leaders having to decide how to proceed, particularly given that they face particular challenges because of the nature of their institutions. Take travel to college, as an example, where college students are much more likely to use public transport or rely on college buses than school pupils.

Or think about the concept of creating “bubbles” to be able to isolate groups of students, which feels realistic in many schools. This is much more complex, perhaps impossible in a post-16 setting where students study multiple subjects in different classes, with some students working and coming in only one day a week, where students will be out on work experience and where apprentices come for their off-the-job training.

The good news is that our work with colleges shows that, within the constraints they are under, they are being pragmatic and putting the safety of staff and students first and foremost. They have also understood the need to be agile, with local lockdowns likely rather than possible. They showed just how quickly they can respond back in March when they moved hundreds of thousands of learners onto online learning in an incredibly short time. That experience has been instructive, with the recent Ofsted review of online learning providing invaluable insight into what has worked, what more needs to be done and what doesn’t work. College leaders will be using that review and their own experiences to plan for a range of scenarios.

The scenarios include higher levels of online teaching and learning than they used to. A good thing in many eyes. Many colleges are planning for a third to two thirds of teaching to be moved online in order to allow for social distancing on site and to stem the challenges of transport issues. All are working on their emergency contingency plans for responding to local or national lockdowns.

What they need now is support for dealing with the uncertainties they face, rather than lots of new guidance. They want to understand the scientific advice about social distancing, shielding and transmission. But, more than anything, they want and need additional funding to pay for the costs of cleaning, new facilities and transport and for government to work with them to make agile decisions as circumstances change. College leaders need to know that they will be supported to do the right things when judgements must be made in real time, without waiting for permission or guidance.

The only certainty is that this next term will be challenging - for staff, students and college leaders. Clearer, timely and more consistent communications from government are needed to help face those challenges. All of us want college students to be able to focus on learning with staff feeling safe. I have confidence that colleges will achieve that.