A new survey by Parentkind has found that more than a quarter of parents and carers across England, Wales and North Ireland (26%) reported that they either don’t know or have already decided they will not send their child back to school in the autumn term amidst concern over how social distancing will be managed.

In England, parents were particularly anxious about implementation of social distancing in September with a third of parents (33%) saying they would be happy to send their child back to school without it compared with around half of parents in Wales (53%) and North Ireland (46%). Meanwhile, across all three countries, only a quarter of parents (26%) reported that they had already been consulted on how the arrangements for a September return to schools will look while 65% had not but wanted to be consulted on the matter.

John Jolly, Chief Executive of Parentkind, says these results signal that “more work needs to be done by the government and schools to reassure parents and carers that it is safe for children to return to school”. He also suggests that the government needs to “be understanding of parents’ legitimate concerns” amid the finding that nearly three quarters of parents (74%) wanted the choice as to whether their child would return to school in September. This following the government’s recent guidance on full school reopenings which states that from September, attendance will once again become mandatory and absence fines will be issued.

As covered in NGA’s immediate reaction to the guidance in a previous newsletter, governing boards will need to continue to work with leaders to ensure that the communications going out to parents are clear. This communication will need to continue into the new academic year to ensure parents are as reassured as they can be, and the messaging from leaders takes account of the latest public health developments, both nationally and locally, with parents given the opportunity to share concerns.

In her latest blog - planning for a year of liberation - NGA CEO, Emma Knights reflects on the past few months and shares her thoughts on why the upcoming school year should be liberating for schools.

Update from Emma Knights: influencing education policy

All of us at Governor HQ work hard to promote the interests of the school governance community and amplify the voice of those governing at a national level. We also bring governance expertise, evidence and perspective to many education policy discussions where it might otherwise be missing. This new monthly update is not just to keep members informed of topical issues but also to give you another opportunity to tell us what you know or would like to see.

Our relationship and regular dialogue with colleagues in the Department for Education (DfE) governance team helps ensure that the experiences and concerns of our members are reflected in a number of areas, such as the design of communications and guidance, system leadership, governor and trustee workload and governance in MATS. As a result of our relationship with the DfE they are attending our annual clerks conference on 2 March to gain valuable insight from those attending and discuss the support and professional development required in order to make clerking more consistently effective.

Last month I attended the launch of Ofsted’s annual report, where I not only heard with interest from HMCI Amanda Spielman about the activity of Ofsted over the past year and her current priorities, but also obtained a commitment from Ofsted to work with NGA on their research and review of the new education inspection framework. We continue to monitor governing boards’ experiences of inspection and will be publishing a report with recommendations for some change next month.

I am a member of the Department for Education’s headteacher standards review group which is doing what it says on the tin. As part of that work, NGA organised consultation groups with governors and trustees in London and Birmingham for the DfE to hear their views on the proposed changes, currently still confidential. This input will help shape the final version of the standards which will require Government ministers to sign off.

Steve Edmonds, our director of advice and guidance, participated in Education Support and National Association of Headteachers’ (NAHT’s) roundtable on managing the mental health and wellbeing of school leaders and staff during these compulsory changes. Governing boards will have an instrumental role to play in the new Relationships and Sex Education curriculum, especially in engaging with parents.

We have also responded to the consultation by the School Teachers' Review Body (STRB) on teacher and leaders pay. This year policy on remuneration is higher profile than ever. We expect most NGA members would welcome, as we did, the Government’s intention to increase teacher’s starting pay to £30,000 a year nationally by 2022, but might be wondering about affordability and the knock-on effect for more experienced teachers. The governing board’s role in overseeing the school/trust’s budget may be in sharp relief with the role as the employer of staff in many schools. We would very much welcome views on this; this is only the first step in a significant consultation process.

I was also pleased to represent the governance perspective in the Youth Sports Trust consultation about wellness in schools, and to attend a meeting of NAHT’s School Improvement Commission which is considering how schools can be best supported to improve.

If you have views on any of these issues, please email me at Emma.Knights@nga.org.uk