All secondary schools and colleges in Wales will move to online learning

As part of ‘national effort to reduce coronavirus transmission’ Secondary schools and colleges in Wales will move to online learning from Monday, December 14 as part of a ‘national effort to reduce transmission of coronavirus’ Education Minister Kirsty Williams (@wgmin_education @Kirsty_Williams) confirmed today (10 Dec).

The Minister made it clear that, thanks to the efforts of education staff across the country, schools and colleges are safe and secure environments, with almost half of all Welsh schools having had zero covid cases since September.

However, it is also recognised that education settings being open can contribute to wider social mixing outside the school and college environment.

By making this decision, the Minister felt it was important to make a ‘clear, national direction’ to take pressure off individual schools, colleges, local authorities, parents and carers.

The Minister said her decision followed expert advice from Wales’s Chief Medical Officer showing that the public health situation in Wales was deteriorating.

The latest TTP data shows that rates of Covid-19 have further increased across Wales and have now exceeded 370/100k with a test positivity of 17%.

The R rate in Wales has increased to 1.27 with a doubling time of just 11.7 days.

Education Minister Kirsty Williams said:

“Every day, we are seeing more and more people admitted to hospital with coronavirus symptoms.

“The virus is putting our health service under significant and sustained pressure and it is important we all make a contribution to reduce its transmission.

“In his advice to me today, the CMO recommends that a move to online learning should be implemented for secondary school pupils as soon as is practicable.

“I can therefore confirm that a move to online learning should be implemented for secondary school pupils and college students from Monday next week.

“We recognise, as we did during the firebreak, that it is more difficult for primary and special school age children to undertake self-directed learning.

“That is why we are encouraging primary and special schools to continue to stay open.

“Having spoken to local education leaders, I am confident that schools and colleges have online learning provision in place.

“This will also be important in ensuring that students are at home during this time, learning and staying safe.

“Critically, and this is very important, children should be at home.

“This is not an early Christmas holiday, please do everything you can to minimise your contact with others.”

“The education family in Wales has pulled together so many times this year to make a real difference to the course of this virus and ultimately to save lives and I know we can do the same again.

“Together we will keep Wales safe.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said:

“Keeping schools open remains a national priority because, as the Chief Medical Officer has consistently said, not being in school damages children’s learning, development and mental health.

“The right approach to reducing the number of cases is following the protective measures in place, including secondary students wearing face coverings when travelling to and from school and in communal areas, and accessing testing where appropriate.”

“Schools, colleges and early years settings across the country have worked extremely hard to put protective measures in place where they have become aware that someone who has attended has tested positive for coronavirus, they have responded well and taken swift action in line with public health advice.

“We have consistently been clear that we would take every possible action before closing schools, because it is a national priority to keep them open. We are rolling out surge testing capacity where data indicates that is needed to keep the virus under control, and we keep the local tiers of restrictions under review every two weeks.

“Children are at very low risk from the virus, with only 0.2% of state-funded pupils who were absent from school last week having a confirmed case.

“We have strengthened the already rigorous measures schools are following to reduce transmission of the virus, including requiring face coverings in all secondary schools in communal areas outside classrooms in tier 2 and 3 areas.”

Simon Carter, Director at RM Education, said:

“The coronavirus pandemic has completely upended traditional teaching methods – both in Britain and around the world. And, with schools and further education colleges in Wales moving online from Monday as part of a national effort to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, it’s abundantly clear that remote learning has played a critical role in the education of our children this year, and will do for some time to come. The growing adoption of digital tools in schools – from Microsoft Teams to Google Classroom – is important for teachers, parents and the sector to adapt to, as we move into education’s “new normal”. 

“Above all, a continuity plan has become vital for the country’s schools. Whether there’s a second spike in coronavirus cases, more local lockdowns, a snow day, a sick day, or all four, a hybrid approach to teaching – where online learning and classroom learning are combined – will be the only way to ensure pupils still receive the same high quality of teaching during term time.  

“Young people are more digitally savvy than ever before, and schools should be doing what they can to build on these skills to incorporate online learning and collaboration into the way they teach, whether in school or at home. Ultimately, schools and colleges should be a constant for all children and reliable technology is critical to making that possible.”

School leaders ‘bitterly disappointed’ at ‘contradictory’ decision on school closures in Wales 

Laura Doel, director of school leaders’ union NAHT Cymru, said:

“While we feel this is the right decision for secondary schools given the circumstances, it is going to be a challenge for them to move to fully supporting online learning while simultaneously remaining open for vulnerable children, and we are concerned about the impact it could have on classroom bubbles.

“We are bitterly disappointed for primary schools and their families. This decision ignores Welsh government’s own advice on pre-isolating before seeing extended family over the Christmas holidays.

“In allowing households to mix over Christmas, the government passed responsibility for making Covid safety decisions on to individuals. But it is not allowing them the flexibility to decide their own priorities. Many parents will simply vote with their feet and keep children at home anyway.

“Attendance figures in primary schools in Wales may now plummet in the last week of term, and there will be no mechanism in place to continue learning because school sites will remain open. Schools do not have sufficient staff and resources to simultaneously teach virtually and stay open. If all school sites closed and switched to distance learning, at least children would be able to carry on with their education.

“Since the announcement was made this afternoon, we are receiving calls from local authorities across Wales who are making their own decisions to switch to blended learning in primary schools from next week to allow families and school staff to adhere to the government’s own advice on pre-isolation. Once again we will have a mixed economy across Wales.

“The Minister says she is acting specifically on the Chief Medical Officer’s advice relating to secondaries and that closing secondary schools will reduce the R rate. We call on the CMO to review the situation in primary schools as a matter of urgency so schools can continue to support their children with learning at home.”