That’s the main message from the education inspectorate, Estyn, based on what it observed last year. With the Senedd to debate Estyn’s 2020/21 annual report on Tuesday, this article looks at the key findings and some wider context.
2020/21: an exceptional year
The pandemic dominated education provision in 2020/21. The sector:
- resumed face to face teaching in September 2020 after the first lockdown;
- faced continued disruption and pupil absence because of self-isolation rules during the autumn, spring and summer; and
- provided remote teaching to most pupils during a second lockdown in the winter, while continuing on-site provision to vulnerable pupils and children of key workers.
So the latest annual report is different to previous years’. It focuses on how well schools and other providers kept teaching and learning going in exceptional circumstances, rather than the outcomes of usual inspections.
Another difference is that Estyn was due to pause its routine inspections anyway in 2020/21 to focus instead on supporting schools to get ready for the new Curriculum for Wales. This activity was largely repurposed towards schools’ response to the pandemic, although still touched on curriculum reform.
Estyn continued to monitor “schools causing concern”, i.e. those already on its radar because of underperformance. In December 2021, it gave the Senedd a list of schools in the two statutory categories of intervention – requiring significant improvement and requiring special measures.
Estyn published several reports of telephone calls and visits during 2020/21 to discuss how settings were dealing with the pandemic. Estyn also continued with its “thematic reports” which the Welsh Government asks it to produce, on top of its core inspection activity.
Estyn’s main messages
Estyn’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training (HMCI) is legally required to provide an annual report to the Senedd. The 2020/21 annual report was produced during a transitional phase in Estyn’s leadership. The previous HMCI, Meilyr Rowlands, retired in August 2021, with existing Strategic Director, Claire Morgan, serving in the interim before the new HMCI, Owen Evans, started in January 2022.
In summary, the interim HMCI’s main messages from 2020/21 are:
- Learners’ well-being has been the top priority for schools and other providers during the pandemic. It must continue to be prioritised as it’s vital to educational progress.
- Teachers, head teachers and other practitioners have shown great resilience and perseverance to rise to the challenges of the pandemic. This has created an unprecedented degree of pressure on staff and has taken its toll on school leaders in particular.
- The disruption to education has been particularly challenging for vulnerable and disadvantaged learners, including those with Additional Learning Needs (ALN) and pupils from deprived households.
- The agility schools needed to show has had some benefits – improving digital teaching and learning, stronger links with communities and parents, and evaluating learners’ progress over time. This fresh perspective could stand schools in good stead to deliver the new Curriculum for Wales, if they apply their experiences from the pandemic effectively.
- However, while pupils’ digital competence has improved, many have regressed in their literacy and numeracy. The pandemic also affected learners’ independence, communication and social skills.
- The Welsh language skills of learners, where no or little Welsh is spoken in the home, deteriorated during lockdowns. This was a particular issue for pupils in Welsh-medium schools when they returned on-site.
More detail can be found in the annual report’s summary of each inspected sector.
The impact of COVID-19
Interim HMCI, Claire Morgan, described the pandemic’s impact on children and young people to the Senedd’s Children, Young People and Education Committee in December 2021:
It is clear that many pupils have gaps in their learning …. We've picked up social skills, those early speech and language skills, physical fitness, which you mentioned, and all of these areas, along with well-being, must continue to be a priority as we move forward.
Schools tell us that you can visibly see the impact on learners' levels of anxiety, higher rates of absence and pupils appearing to be more passive in lessons than they were before the pandemic. There's quite a lot of work to build up the resilience and confidence of learners.
She also said that schools have used Welsh Government “Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards” funding to appoint significantly more classroom assistants and some additional teachers.
This funding formed part of the “Renew and Reform” COVID-19 education recovery plan. In total, the Welsh Government spent around £190 million in 2021-22 on the education response to COVID-19.
The wider context of school standards
Our recent article discussed the Welsh Government’s long-standing “national mission” to raise school standards.
Last month the Minister for Education and Welsh Language, Jeremy Miles, set out in the Senedd his updated approach to achieving “high standards and aspirations for all”. This includes:
- “consider[ing] all educational policies through the lens of whether they help tackle the impact of poverty on educational attainment”;
- high-quality initial training and ongoing professional learning for teachers;
- better use of the Pupil Development Grant, which tops up schools’ budgets based on numbers of deprived pupils;
- community-focused schools with family engagement officers seeking to improve attendance and school managers making schools more open and accessible;
- greater access to independent careers advice for young people from low-income households; and
- stronger leadership in schools.
The Minister said Estyn will have a “key role to play in both supporting and monitoring our plans” through its inspection activity, reporting on progress, and engagement with and support for schools.
How to follow the debate
Members of the Senedd will debate Estyn’s 2020/21 annual report at around 18:45 on Tuesday 26 April 2022. You can watch it on Senedd TV and read the transcript approximately 24 hours later.
Article by Michael Dauncey, Senedd Research, Welsh Parliament
