It’s been a crazy, exhausting, bizarre and infuriating 12 months for teachers and school staff everywhere - with more changes, dramas and head-spinning developments occurring in one year than most would have experienced in a Covid-free lifetime. 

Tes Scotland recalls the dates of some of the most shocking events to hit the education sector over the past year - just in case any of them had slipped your mind.

18 March 2020: school closures announced

There have been smaller tremors in the days beforehand - with school inspections and student-teacher placements coming to a premature end - but then comes the confirmation that Scottish education is in uncharted waters. On Wednesday 18 March, there are announcements across the UK that schools will close to most pupils two days from now.

Speaking at the time, first minister Nicola Sturgeon points to two key drivers for the closures: the science and “the reality on the ground”. She says: “As people do the right thing and follow the advice to self-isolate, or isolate as a household, more and more schools are approaching a point where they have lost too many staff to continue as normal.”

19 March 2020: exams cancelled

Education secretary John Swinney announces the cancellation of the 2020 exam diet in the Scottish Parliament the day after the exams in England are cancelled. He says that, since 1888, exams in the country have never been cancelled - even during the two World Wars - which shows the “gravity” of the coronavirus outbreak. The system that will replace the exams, he says, will “use coursework, teacher assessments of estimated grades and prior attainment as the basis of certification”. As events later in the year prove, that does not go smoothly.

23 June 2020: full-time return in August announced

In late June, just hours before many schools are due to close for the summer holidays, Swinney announces that Scottish schools should prepare to reopen fully from 11 August. Until this point Scottish schools and councils have been working on blended-learning plans, with the idea that, when pupils return to school buildings after the summer break, they will do a mix of in-school and remote learning to allow for social distancing in classrooms. However, they are told, in no uncertain terms, that these blended-learning plans are now a contingency.

4 August 2020: SQA results day

The first grades are awarded, not by exams but by a mix of teacher input and algorithms. It does not go well.

Almost immediately, concerns about fairness are raised relating to how the algorithm has moved grades around: 25 per cent of teacher estimates have been adjusted; 93.1 per cent of the grades changed have been adjusted down. However, the real outrage comes when it transpires that the pupils from the most disadvantaged postcodes in Scotland are twice as likely as their more affluent peers to have had their Higher downgraded from a pass to a fail. Pressure rapidly mounts on the education secretary and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

11 August 2020: the results U-turn

Exactly one week after the results come out, the Scottish government bows to pressure and reverts to teacher judgements for all pupils whose estimates have been downgraded by the moderation process. Those who have had results upgraded are allowed to retain them. Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, Swinney says: “In speaking directly to the young people affected by the downgrading of awards - the 75,000 pupils whose teacher estimates were higher than their final awards - I want to say this: I am sorry.”

13 August 2020: vote of no confidence

Scottish Labour calls for Swinney to be removed following his role in the SQA results controversy, which, it says, is the latest in a series of failures. However, the motion is defeated by 67 votes to 58 after the Scottish Greens back Swinney. In exchange for their support, they demand the restoration of all downgraded results, an independent review of the fiasco and a second longer-term review of the exams and assessment system. The remit of the ongoing Curriculum for Excellence review is extended to include this.

7 October 2020: review of results fiasco published 

Professor Mark Priestley’s independent rapid review is published and finds that the results debacle in August could have been “at least partially avoided”. It says that warnings had been “raised repeatedly” from April onwards about “the equity implications of an over-reliance on a statistical approach, premised on comparison with historical cohort data”. But these warnings “seem to have been underemphasised by both the government and SQA until late in the process”. The review makes nine recommendations, including that the 2021 National 5 exams be cancelled. That same day, this is exactly what happens.

8 December 2020: Higher and Advanced Higher exams cancelled

Swinney announces in the Scottish Parliament that the Higher and Advanced Higher 2021 exams are now also cancelled. He says the issue is not so much whether exams can be held safely in the spring but “whether we can do so fairly”. He says “the level of disruption to learners has not been equal” and that pupils who have been kept out of school for Covid-related reasons are more likely to come from “our poorest communities”. He stresses that the replacement grading system will not involve an algorithm and will be based on “learner evidence” as well as local and national quality assurance.

19 December 2020: return to school delayed

On the Saturday before Christmas - just as many families are settling down to watch the Strictly Come Dancing final - first minister Nicola Sturgeon announces that the Christmas break is to be extended for around a week, until Monday 11 January. She says the majority of pupils will then continue to learn from home until “at least” Monday 18 January. The use of “at least” here proves prescient.

22 February 2021: the return to school begins

On Monday 22 February, P1-3 pupils are able to return to school full-time, as are nursery pupils and some senior secondary pupils undertaking practical qualifications. The following day, Sturgeon announces that, by 15 March, the government is aiming for the rest of primary pupils to return and “more senior-phase secondary pupils … for at least part of their learning”. However, to the dismay of school leaders, this later changes to all secondary pupils having some in-school teaching each week from 15 March. The goal remains for all pupils to be back in school full time after the Easter holidays. 

Emma Seith is a reporter at Tes Scotland

This article originally appeared in the 19 March 2021 issue under headline “Ten days that shook the education world”