During the Covid-19 lockdown periods, Tedros Ghebreyesus (Director General, World Health Organisation) and Klaus Schwab (founder / executive chair of the World Economic Forum and joint author of ‘COVID-19: The Great Reset’), strongly suggested that “there will be no return to the old normal”. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the state education system.
We should all be equally concerned, because it will be from the pool of today’s learners that the leaders, scientists, engineers, teachers, healthcare and other workers of tomorrow will be found.
The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.
But just how true is this statement in the twenty-first century?
How did Covid19 lockdowns affect learners in England?
In ‘Lost but not forgotten’, a report of the Centre for Social Justice, published in January 2022 it was revealed that:
Covid-19 has wreaked havoc in our schools. Young people’s life chances have been laid to waste by successive school shutdowns and interruptions to their learning. The damage caused by lockdowns could not be clearer than in the case of school attendance: the pandemic has given rise to a generation of ghost children. If we’re not careful, we are creating an Oliver Twist generation of children exposed to significant safeguarding hazards including tough domestic situations at home, online harms and joining county line gangs.
100,000 kids have almost entirely disappeared from education since schools returned last year. The existence of these so called “ghost children” is nothing short of a national disaster.
The summary of a Children’s Commissioner (England) report published in February 2024 revealed the following startling statistic:
Almost 120,000 children of compulsory school age were recorded as missing education at some point in 2022/23 which is up by almost 25% from the year before.
Today’s new data also shows an increase of 8.4% in the number of children recorded as being home educated at some point in the same year, bringing the figure to 126,000 from 116,000 the year before.
… children who were living in the most deprived areas and those who needed extra support to engage with education were more likely to leave the school roll than their peers.
Within the main report of the Children’s Commission ‘Lost in transition? The destinations of children who leave the state education state education system’, it was revealed that between Spring 2021/22 and Spring 2022/23, an estimated 10,181 children left the state education system to unknown destinations:
An estimated 2,868 children left the state education system and became a child missing education, meaning they were not registered at a school or otherwise receiving an education … an estimated 13,120 children left the state education system and entered home education … this was often a forced choice influenced by shortcomings in support for children with Special Educational Needs (SEND).
In relation to children who leave school and go into home education, the same report said:
Most parents who the office spoke to said that they had chosen home education as a last resort. Parents detailed a series of incidents where schools had not offered the support their child needed to engage in education. Often, their child had started to not attend school regularly or had been subject to a series of sanctions in school. [my emphasis] The office heard that parents were opting for home education because they believed that sending their child to school without support was having a negative impact on their child and making it harder for them to access education.
The issues became particularly acute in relation to those children moving from primary to high school education:
parents agreed that secondary schools tended to be less nurturing and child-centred when compared to primary schools. Some children struggled with the bigger class sizes, different teachers, and stricter behaviour systems. [my emphasis] Parents of children with diagnosed neurodivergence said it was more difficult to get the support their child needed in a secondary school setting.
The issue of persistent absenteeism is also referenced in a House of Commons briefing paper which pointed out that:
In 2022/23, 21.2% of pupils were recorded as “persistently absent” (defined by the Department for Education as missing 10% or more of possible school sessions or around 19 days over the course of a year). This equates to around 1.6 million pupils. The proportion of persistent absentees decreased slightly from the previous year (2021/22, when it stood at 22.5%) but remains much higher than pre-pandemic. It was 10.9% of pupils in 2018/19.
How did Covid-19 impact learners in Wales?
During Covid-19, schools closed during two main periods. Although many schools stayed open for children of key workers and vulnerable children between March and September 2020 and then roughly between Christmas 2020 and Easter 2021, the majority of pupils were ordered to stay at home.
Even when schools were open for face-to-face learning, there was continued disruption due to reduced hours timetabling. Further disruptions occurred when classes / year groups were quarantined following either a pupil’s or teacher’s positive Covid-19 test. Pupils’ anxieties were raised by constantly changing policies which were inconsistent across secondary schools. For example, rapidly changing face mask wearing policies had a negative effect.
In 2022, Welsh Government data revealed that the non-school attendance rate was ‘almost double the level before the pandemic.’
In Wales, former Estyn Chief Inspector Meilyr Rowlands, was commissioned by the Welsh Government to examine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic for school attendance.
Meilyr Rowlands highlighted that:
Learners emphasised the sheer shock they experienced when re-integrating back rapidly into school after a long period of lockdown and disruption. While the transition had been especially difficult for a minority, and led to serious wellbeing and mental health concerns in a few cases, all learners reported that they had experienced a certain amount of disorientation and many felt more vulnerable…. many learners had lost some of their basic social and study skills, including the ability to focus on study for an extended time. All this added to the stress and pressure they felt on returning to school and coping with academic work and a suddenly unfamiliar social environment.
Before Covid-19, it was well-established that vulnerable learners (defined in the literature as those eligible for free school meals, with additional learning needs, or having English as an additional language) were more likely to have poorer attendance records.
New Covid related reasons affecting pupil’s attendance were:
- COVID 19 as an illness, self-isolation and school-directed absences
- anxiety, mental health and wellbeing issues relating to health and education concerns
- disengagement and more relaxed attitudes to learning and attendance
Rowland had this to say regarding learners on the autistic spectrum:
We also heard evidence in particular about learners on the autistic spectrum. Some of these pupils may have preferred aspects of home and distance learning, such as the opportunity for learning at their own pace and at the time of their choosing, and believed that the learning environment at home was quieter, calmer or less distracting than at school.
… Overall, school absence in autism spectrum learners and other learners with additional learning needs has received little attention by researchers and the little that exists predates the pandemic.
HIs report also revealed that:
the number of learners whose parents have elected to educate them at home has increased significantly to just over 4,000 in 2020-21, while in previous years the number was never been greater than around 2,500 (in 2018-19). Similar increases in EHE have been seen in England.
We have noted from the 2024 Children’s Commissioner for Wales report that parents / carers made up 54% of referrers and that Education / Education ALN / SEN made up 48% of the issues considered. Areas where the highest number of referral’s originated were Cardiff, Rhondda Cynon Taff and the Vale of Glamorgan.
In one case study the Commissioner was contacted by a “Year 11 pupil who rang on behalf of other pupils as well as themselves. They raised concerns around the lack of access to the school toilets during the day – the school had been locking the toilets for some months.”
Anecdotal evidence of a shift in the behaviour of those running our high schools includes the following:
- School locks toilets with ‘prison-like’ gates during lesson times.
- School slammed for ‘draconian’ policy which sees metal shutters block toilets during lessons.
- School puts CCTV in toilets to stop pupils being late for class.
- Schools breaking law by not providing single sex toilets for pupils.
- ‘I was put in a school isolation booth more than 240 times’.
- The school where children lock their phones away in £10 pouch.
The main area of concern that was identified in the reports examined earlier in this article related to the radical shift in pupil attendance rates in both England and Wales following the Covid-19 lock-downs.
We also noted the suggestion, within the Meilyr Rowlands report, that the issue of fixed penalty notices, under Section 444A Education Act 1996, might form part of a range of options available to drive improved attendance rates. Furthermore, Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure their child's attendance at school. For example, parents whose children remain on a school roll but who do not attend regularly could face prosecution, under Section 444 Education Act 1996.
However, the legal sanctions of fixed penalty notices and prosecutions of parents are widely viewed as a last resort in relation to non-school attendance. Of the range of alternative strategies available to help learners in Welsh schools and increase attendance rates, Meilyr Rowlands pointed out that:
there are staffing capacity challenges at teacher, teacher assistant and local authority support staff levels. More qualified teachers are required to cover for absent teachers and to staff various ‘catch up’ initiatives for tutoring learners. More teaching assistants are needed for supporting the wide range of wellbeing, mental health and family engagement initiatives that schools would like to undertake. More local authority support staff are needed to help schools address a backlog of acute and persistent learner wellbeing and mental health issues.
In none of the literature that we examined was a more detailed examination conducted into the role that draconian school-imposed sanctions (pupil isolation and fixed term exclusions) and strict behaviour policies might have played in relation to reduced learner attendance levels. Could these and other factors be contributing to the presenting issues, we wonder?
21st Century Schools in Wales
The majority of readers will be completely unaware of the 21st Century Schools programme in Wales.
21st Century Schools is more than a building programme:
The 21st Century Schools Programme is a One Wales commitment and a unique collaboration between the Welsh Government (WG), the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) and local authorities.
In a written statement, Kirsty Williams, Cabinet Secretary for Education, said:
The 21st Century Schools and Education Programme was developed in partnership between the Welsh Local Government Association, Colleges Wales and Diocesan Directors. In its first wave of investment ending in 2019, over £1.4 billion will be invested supporting the rebuild and refurbishment of over 150 schools and colleges across Wales.
We recognise that there was considerable need for improvements to the buildings in the estate of the Welsh educational sector following decades of neglect of building maintenance. Resources available via this 21st Century Schools programme were used for the upgrade and modernisation of school buildings and also for the re-building of whole schools. It would also have been an excellent opportunity for equipment permitting covert pupil surveillance via CCTV to be installed.
A Welsh Government press release, published in November 2021, revealed that “all new schools and colleges in Wales to be net zero carbon”:
The new Net Zero Carbon requirement will become part of the of Welsh Government’s flagship 21st Century Schools and Colleges programme. From January 1 2022, the programme will be known as Sustainable Communities for Learning’ [my emphasis]
Education and Welsh Language Minister Jeremy Miles said:
We should all be asking ourselves what we can do to help reverse the damage caused by climate change. With Llancarfan, we are already delivering the first Net Zero Carbon school. Making sure our future buildings contribute positively is a significant step we can take.
At the heart of our new curriculum is our aim to support learners to become ethical, informed citizens, who are committed to the sustainability of the planet.
In Rhondda Cynon Taff, the council website lists a series of ongoing school investment projects under the sustainable communities for learning programme:
Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme (formerly the 21st Century Schools and Colleges Programme, prior to January 24, 2022) aims to transform the learning experience of pupils, ensuring they are taught in classrooms with the technologies and facilities needed to support the delivery of the Curriculum for Wales.
The ‘Guidance for delivery partners’ document, issued by the Welsh Government in 2023 reveals the magnitude of this school re-building and modernisation rolling programme:
The first wave of investment (Band A) of the Programme was under the banner of ‘21st Century Schools and Education’ and represented a £1.6 billion investment over the five-year period ending 2018 to 2019. This supported the rebuild and refurbishment of more than 170 schools. The second tranche of investment (Band B) began in April 2019. It was expanded to include further education colleges and renamed the ‘21st Century Schools and Colleges Programme’. In January 2022 the Programme was renamed ‘Sustainable Communities for Learning (SCfL)’ to make a clear statement about our commitment towards the environment, community cohesion, and our future generations.
This Programme will see a further £2.3 billion investment in school and college infrastructure.
21st century schools rebuilt during the Covid-19 lockdowns in the Vale of Glamorgan
Whitmore High School, a new state of the art building costing £30.5 million opened in May 2021.
Just over one mile away is Pencoedtre High School, which was rebuilt at a cost of £38 million. It opened in January 2022.
By February 2023 a damning report from Estyn, the Welsh education inspectors, said high rates of persistent absence and low attendance at Pencoedtre High School are a “significant concern”. Inspectors discovered that “across all subjects, pupils produce relatively little written work.” Following this report this school was placed in special measures.
In January 2024 forty six members of the NASUWT Cymru took strike action due to behaviour issues where teaching staff had reported that they were “having to lock doors to protect themselves and their classes from violence by other pupils”.
In a recent response to a Freedom of Information request made by us, the attendance rates for year 9, 10 and 11 pupils at Pencoedtre High School for academic year 2023 / 2024 were shown to be 71.5%, 70% & 59.2% respectively; significantly lower than the figures relating to academic year 2021 / 2022.
Unfortunately, as bad as they are, these percentage attendance rates do not illustrate the magnitude of the problem. For example, the school’s FOI response also revealed that out of 1256 registered pupils, 173 had been placed in isolation and 123 had been temporarily excluded from school during academic year 2023 / 2024. Readers should note that of those pupils recorded as being either placed in isolation or temporarily excluded, some would have received those sanctions multiple times.
We ask: Could external actors be influencing our education policy makers, re-shaping the training of our teachers and re-drafting the school curriculum? If so, has our education system been reset?
We will take look at that question in the next article in this series.
