I recently wrote about my shock and dismay at the lack of knowledge and understanding from the Scottish government that we have all faced when it comes to decisions regarding education. I feel compelled to try and explain the difficulties at the start of a landmark week, when pupils throughout Scotland will return to school buildings for at least a portion of the week.

Schools reopening: Trying to juggle it all

What I would encourage people to remember is that we are already dealing with a lot of issues in schools. Two prominent examples would be the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and course choice. The SQA situation has been, quite frankly, shambolic. There have been hundreds of updates and changes made to course requirements. Additionally, the moderation process that principal teachers, deputes and headteachers are trying to navigate through are extremely difficult and there seems to be no sign of this letting up as we approach May and June. 

Creating a model 

We were posed with the challenge of creating a timetable that allowed all students to access school on a weekly basis, prioritising senior-phase learning, maintaining hub provision, maintaining two-metre social distancing in the building and continuing to offer blended learning. As a result, most schools will have spent hours pondering a model that either brings senior students in thirds or by their subject column. Once the senior-phase model is decided, you then need to try and ascertain how to bring the BGE (broad general education - the first three years of secondary) students in to meet the requirements.

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Also today: Teachers hit out at ‘dialogue’ with Swinney event date

Creating the timetable 

This was extremely challenging and would usually take five to six weeks when completing the normal school timetable. However, this work had to be condensed into one week.

For a class of 30, you would require a minimum of three teachers, depending on your school size, but this could be as many as five if your school has smaller rooms. Some schools may have only five or six maths and English teachers and usually they will all be timetabled together. If all students are brought in, you either require large teaching areas (often with less IT provision) or you need to have a third in and stream the lesson to the other two-thirds of students at home. This is not conducive to teaching students.

Once the timetable was completed, the big question was how to give students their timetables. A lot of Scottish schools use the Seemis management-information system, and adapting that was not possible, so a number of schools have spent hours creating timetables manually or emailing all students their time slots for each class. This has all been for a period of just 14 days, up to Good Friday.

Backlash from parents’ groups and politicians 

The first minister never actually goes into much detail when making announcements, and we were very aware that the perception of parents was going to be that their child would be back in school for a time period that was much more close to normal. We also knew there would be a negative reaction when they learned the reality.

Unfortunately, the reality is that if there is social distancing, you cannot have all students in a school. The government likes to throw in red herrings around how much money it has given to schools or how we should utilise other buildings nearby or increase staffing, but the reality is that these things aren’t feasible.  

I also watched in anger last Tuesday when the first minister updated the Scottish Parliament. She continued to make out that the return to education is something it’s not, whilst opposing politicians’ demanded that we look again at plans and offer a better provision for education. These politicians are saying this after we have spent hours and hours down a rabbit hole creating something that none of us actually want. We have been forced into by a group of politicians who seem increasingly out of touch, with no concept of the realities we face as teachers. To find out that this was also decided without agreement from the Covid-19 Education Recovery Group and the teaching unions again highlights the government’s contempt for the teaching profession. 

Nicola Sturgeon once said she wanted to be judged on her record in education. It’s not looking too promising just now, and I wonder if she now regrets that statement.  

I hope the Scottish government all enjoyed their weekends, while the poor teachers across Scotland were planning how to deliver lessons to 10 children in their class whilst also engaging with 20 at home. They’ll also be teaching more hours, as BGE classes will need to be split so they’ll also have to work out ways to create engaging tasks for students at home that they can do with less support.

Management teams will this week be taping desks, creating sections in the playground to keep “bubbles” together and devising staggered break and lunch systems to ensure social distancing. They will also be doing everything possible to maintain staff morale. Luckily, there is not an election coming up. Oh, wait a minute...

The writer is a secondary school leader in Scotland