Pupils' return to class is supported, Shropshire Star survey finds
Parents want their children back in the classroom, and fear they have been damaged by the enforced break.
A survey by the Shropshire Star today reveals almost six in 10 support the full reopening of schools this week.
Term officially starts for students across Shropshire and Mid Wales tomorrow, although for most their first day back will be Wednesday.
Readers overwhelmingly said youngsters had suffered both educationally and mentally from the lockdown, with most children having not set foot in a classroom in nearly six months.
The experience of going to school will be very different for youngsters.
Many schools have set up social bubbles through class or year groups.
Start and break times may be staggered and there will be social distancing and sanitising rules to keep to.
Assemblies will be scrapped to prevent large gatherings and many schools will enforce mask wearing in corridors.
Of readers who took part in our online poll, 69 per cent said they thought children’s mental health had been affected by the restrictions, which saw schools close to most pupils in March.
And even more thought the lockdown had major implications for youngsters’ learning, with 70 per cent saying that children’s education had been severely affected by the lockdown.
Concerns
And while teaching unions had previously voiced concerns about whether it was safe for schools to reopen, these concerns do not appear to be shared by many parents in our region.
Only 35 per cent said they feared schools may pose a danger, although a further 16 per cent said they were unsure.
The public is evenly split on whether schools should have done more to keep in touch with youngsters during the lockdown, with 51 per cent saying they thought schools had done enough.
The survey will also concern Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, with only one in five saying they were happy with the Government’s handling of the reopening of schools – and 45 per cent saying the issue had been dealt with ‘badly’.
The MP, whose constituency sits close to the Shropshire border in South Staffordshire, was accused of caving in to teaching unions when he failed to reopen schools before the summer holidays.
Since then he has come under even more criticism for his handling of this year’s A-level results, which were initially calculated by an algorithm which was said to be weighted against pupils from struggling schools.
The algorithm was later abandoned, and Mr Williamson said students would instead be graded according to assessments by teachers.
The Education Secretary released an open letter to parents, warning that parents who do not send their children back to school risk will place a “huge dent” in their life chances.
He said: “If a child is not in school, they stand to lose far more than just a few months of learning.
“Education is a birth right, so let’s make sure we get all children back – back to learning, back to playing and back to being kids again.”
He said huge lengths had been taken to ensure children are safe, adding: “It really is the best place for them to be.”
