As the last of snow thaws away, the craving for the light and warmth of the sun grows. The pandemic may mean that beach holidays are a long way off but hopefully sunbathing on the golden sands of a foreign beach will happen again. When it does, appropriate protection will be liberally applied to all parts of the body placed in direct sun light. It would be ridiculous to consider protecting some parts and not others. If one part of the body is burnt the pain impacts the whole.
In the blog Education, Vaccination, Vaccination (19 Jan 2021) I highlighted the importance of vaccinating school staff so that they can play their critical role in educating and protecting learners and in allowing society to make a significant step back to normality. I deliberately used the term ‘school staff’ as opposed to ‘teachers’.
Calls for teachers to be vaccinated seem to be growing but I am concerned that whilst well intentioned, they are indicative of a lack of understanding of how schools really work. There is far more to a school than a building occupied by teachers.
A range of job titles is used to cover the vital roles played by school support staff. There are those that work alongside teachers in classrooms. I’ve always recognised that the quality of teaching and learning can be improved further by ensuring that learning support assistants are well trained, respected and valued. They can be a real force in school improvement. I was delighted when during an inspection of a school I led, inspectors commented that it often took them awhile during lesson observations to distinguish between the teacher and the learning support assistant, so good was their teaching ability and teamwork. It seemed to matter more to the inspectors than it did to the children, who simply recognised a teaching team.
Some support staff focus on supporting those with additional needs to overcome barriers to learning. Such barriers are numerous and include medical, physical, learning difficulties and emotional/behavioural challenges. Not that support staff are ‘velcroed’ to specific learners. They work with teachers to establish how the classroom and wider school can be made truly inclusive. They swap roles as appropriate. They may teach groups as the teacher works with those pupils with additional needs. They may take the whole class as the teacher manages an upset and violent pupil.
They do so much more. They can transform the quality of play during break times and lunchtimes. They often form close working relationships with parents, overcoming issues before they became complaints. I found learning support assistants to be the real problem solvers – they did things that made things happen. They rolled up their sleeves and got things done whilst others just talked about it or scanned their job descriptions to find ways of avoiding the task. If a teacher was absent, we employed a supply teacher who often relied greatly on the class’ learning support assistant. If a learning support assistant was absent, we really struggled. It quickly became apparent that they performed tasks that we had taken for granted, only noticing when their absence meant that things went wrong.
Without good support staff schools are less inclusive, the quality of teaching and learning is reduced and pupils with additional needs are not as well supported and are more likely to impact on the learning of others. Those that need changing due to ‘accidents’ or medical need will struggle, links with parents of pupils with additional need will become more stressed and the quality of pupils’ experiences during breaktimes and at lunch will be reduced. There is less nurture and care. Things that need to be done, won’t be.
Of course, there are other staff within schools that play a vital part in how schools operate: admin teams, caretakers, cleaners and lunchtime supervisors to name a few. Schools need to be warm, clean, well -maintained and safe. Resources need ordering, invoices paid and communication with parents/carers maintained.
For schools to reopen, all school staff need to be vaccinated. The whole school body needs to be protected. It would be ridiculous to consider protecting some parts and not others.