“Nothing is off the table” for full reopening of Milton Keynes schools

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to review lockdown measures on February 22 with an earliest date of March 8 given to allow more pupils back into the classroom.

“Nothing is off the table,” said Dr Mac Heath, MK Council’s director of children’s services at a meeting yesterday (Wednesday).

Dr Heath told the children and young people scrutiny committee that there may not be one stampede back into the classrooms when they fully reopen.

He said: “There are discussions about whether it should be a phased return, or of different year groups, or circumstances first.”

MK schools have been open throughout the pandemic providing learning for the children of key workers.

But for some children they may not have been anywhere near a classroom for 12 months.

Dr Heath said: “The challenge we are putting into this is the recognition that returning to school is going to be a significant move and a particular challenge for some of our children and young people who may not have been in school for a year by the time return happens.”

And when there was a full reopening, in September, “we saw more physical altercations between children in classrooms and playgrounds, and we need to be mindful of that.”

So MK Council chiefs are wanting to have plans in place for the “re-socialisation” of children who may not have been with their friends and other people for a long time.

And Dr Heath is not keen on seeing the number of children in classrooms as the most important measure of success.

School chiefs expect that there will be a need for lots of catching up at the same time as many children won’t have had a full school day for many months.

One option that Dr Heath said there is “not any particular appetite at the moment for” is everyone going back a year and repeating it.

But he added that “it doesn’t feel as if anything is off the table in regard to other options.”

The meeting was told that shorter summer holidays, longer school days, summer schools, and catch-up tutoring, are among options being considered.

But Dr Heath said that teaching and learning make only “one part of the whole child” which must be balanced with mental health and other considerations.

At the same time, the city’s education workforce, who have been working throughout the pandemic, are facing the return of students without being vaccinated.

Although the meeting heard that more than 500 front line staff had been vaccinated in children’s social care, foster carers and special school employees, teachers may be facing a wait of six months before they get their jabs.

Dr Heath said he is “Continuing to feed into the Department For Education, that we believe that teachers should have the opportunity to be vaccinated as soon as possible.”

Discussions are still ongoing on whether schools will need to carry out testing.