It's the End of Term!

We've Made It!

For many schools all over the US and the UK and Australia, this week is the end of the first term back in education - and it's time to breathe and reflect. We've made it. There may have been a few false starts, a few scares and maybe even the odd couple of crises - but we've made it to the end of term season, and if you're anything like us, you're already counting down the days until you can settle down with a Christmas brew and wait for the New Year to roll around. And whilst it's a time to celebrate - the tree is up, the lights are on and there might even be a mince pie or two floating around in amongst the piles of marking- it's also time to reflect on the past twelve months, and have a think about where we go from here. 

The international vaccine roll-out has done a lot to contribute to the ability to get back in the classroom; and although we're not in the clear yet, speaking generally, the international education community is in a much better place than they were in December 2020. Last year many of us were still educating and learning under remote conditions with no real end in sight, and although the ability to school children and young people remotely has been a technological gift, it's also contributed to some growing inequalities and problems in the education system. Many children the world over still lack a dedicated home workspace and many children live in households where books and reading materials are scarce, and learning from home in these cases can prove difficult when the classroom environment provides these physical learning support mechanisms. The same can be said for SEND students and students who struggle with neurodiversities like dyslexia and ADHD: the lack of in-person support has been agreed by many parents and educators to have contributed to a growing gap in achievement and confidence that the past term has had to address. 

And whilst in most cases schools are back to in-person learning, the past eighteen months have led to students falling behind and struggling to catch up - and as the threat of a remote learning return isn't off the cards either, we need to pay attention to those who need further support. The past term has been a recovery effort: spending eighteen months out of the classroom has meant that the past three and a half have been important not only educationally but emotionally, and all about strengthening interpersonal skills as well as catching up on the worksheets and the reading that students may have missed. It may have been a bit of an effort. Some educators have reported a large uptick in behavioural issues after the classroom return, and many agree that it is likely to be tied in with issues of social anxiety and the unfamiliarity of a classroom environment.

We've expected a lot of our children and young people- first removing them from the traditional classroom environment, and then sending them back- and whilst many have taken to the new structures and changes with gusto, some hangovers remain. Grades might be perceived to be slipping, or certain future plans might be changing based on new attitudes towards education in general. Confidence may be low after feeling like they've 'fallen behind' in their learning; there may still be lingering anxieties around the ongoing Covid-19 situation and the threat of illness; there may be larger issues at hand, such as previous low results or problems with the teacher-assessed grading that has formed the majority of assessment procedure in the UK for the past year and a half. And that's not to mention the pressures of re-sitting, or taking on GCSE or A-Level assessment for the first time under traditional exam conditions. It's a strange landscape, and many of us may be finding it a little emotionally and mentally taxing to navigate at the moment. 

And this is natural: teething problems are to be expected when the world has seen some of the biggest educational upheaval than it's seen since the industrial revolution, let alone in our lifetime. So that's why it's important to look back on the previous term and reflect. There might be a way to go, there might be catching up to do, there might be issues that need addressing - but the efforts made by both educators and students this term have been an astronomical ask, and there are many things to celebrate too. The end of term signifies a lot of things, from the culmination of efforts to the longed-for winter break, and it's the right time to take a breather and look how far we've come in a year.

Education is slowly getting back on track and we're learning and adapting - and even if there's a temporary return to remote learning, we're learning every day about how we can make the experience better. Even the little wins like fostering better reading attitudes or rebuilding classroom relationships are important. We're in the middle of what will in all likelihood be an extended recovery, and there's probably still a way to go - but we've made it to the first major milestone, and that's something to celebrate.