As the end of term approaches, I’m left questioning why it has taken something as momentous as a deadly pandemic to draw the public’s attention to the power and possibility that our schools offer.
Lockdown has meant that schools and school leaders have hit the headlines in new ways. We’ve heard how, with less than 48 hours’ notice, schools organised farewells, resource packs and remote learning for their students. Almost overnight, they developed new ways of learning and access to computers for those without.
They set to work navigating complicated systems to ensure that their students received free school meal vouchers. And, in some cases, they set up their own food banks and delivery services for families in need.
But this is only half of it. They also stayed open to the most vulnerable students and those with key worker parents and carers.
Central to our communities
School leaders and their staff, in some cases, have worked for months without a break and continued to stay open over the holidays. Staff are checking on their students weekly, entertaining them via social media, and making regular welfare checks.
Our schools’ roles as central to our communities have never been clearer.
The schools that have been most successful in adapting to these new ways of working are those that already had a central role in their communities, and had already built a sense of belonging among staff, students and families.
Over the past few months, I’ve heard from many parents and carers who have been heavily reliant on this additional support. One such case was the mum of a Year 10 student, Dara, who stated that, as a single parent with three children and an elderly grandparent who lives with them, her family couldn’t leave the house. They wouldn’t have made it through lockdown without food parcels.
Driving food parcels
Already, school food banks are shutting down for the summer as exhausted staff finally look to take a well-earned break.
Of course, teachers didn’t enter the profession expecting to find themselves driving food parcels to the homes of students and their families. But we have always expected to nurture and support our young people. It just so happens that, during the pandemic, this is what that support necessarily looked like.
The fact is that children don’t stop needing food outside of term time. The hunger doesn’t disappear for six weeks. In fact, it has just been reported that almost 2,500 children have been admitted to hospital with malnutrition in the first six months of the year - double the number over the same period last year.
The sad truth is that there are families, many of whom have recently suffered bereavements, loss of employment and ill health, who are dreading the long six weeks ahead and will be desperate for September to arrive.
Active agents for change
I’m not suggesting that school staff should be dedicating their summer break to packaging up and delivering food parcels. It is crucial that staff wellbeing is considered and those who have spent months on the front line are given a chance to rest and recuperate.
However, I do feel strongly that the children and families at schools that truly are part of their wider community will be the ones who aren’t currently panicking that their support network will disappear as soon as term ends.
So, how do we ensure that children and families are supported, while at the same time avoiding overwhelming school staff with an impossible workload?
The answer lies in ensuring that all stakeholders in the school community - parents, carers, governors, teachers, members of the wider community and, most importantly, the children themselves - are active agents for change, rather than passive recipients of help.
Indeed, Dara’s mum, grateful for the help she was offered when unable to leave the house, subsequently volunteered to package up parcels in the food bank.
This, in turn, meant that Dara - who has an education, health and care plan and was struggling to work at home without the support of a teaching assistant, but was also nervous about returning to school after three months - was happy to come back to lessons. It was reassuring to her to know that her mum was nearby.
Shaping the school community
Without doubt, we all need to be empowered to engage with and shape the values of the school community if we are to ensure the best outcomes for our young people.
The government’s free school meal voucher scheme is a starting point, and will provide much-needed support through the holidays.
But anyone working in schools knows that the system is far from reliable or easy to access. The various hurdles that need to be jumped over to be eligible for these vouchers means that far too many families living in poverty are not even entitled to this support.
Families who have relied on school support for the past three months cannot suddenly be abandoned. But it doesn’t have to be just school staff who are leading the way. Communities in and around schools could collaborate, build networks and find new ways of working to ensure that the most vulnerable are not left behind.
Right now, we have a choice. We can desperately scramble to go back to how things were, because familiarity feels safe (for some of us at least). Or we can reflect on what we’ve learned from lockdown, and use our new-found sense of community spirit to build a better society for our children and young people.
Having seen what can be achieved when we all come together to support one another during this recent crisis, I find it astonishing that anyone would willingly choose to go back to how things were.
The end of term may be fast approaching but, seeing as none of us is going on a summer holiday, now is the perfect time to reflect on how we dismantle the current system. And then we build something better: something where schools really are at the heart of their communities, building social capital and therefore social justice.
Gerry Robinson is a headteacher, leader in inclusive education and activist
