Lack of clear Government plan for new school year ‘ludicrous’, says headteacher

Pepe Di’Iasio, from Wales High School in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, said heads want ‘clarity, direction and resourcing’ as the new term approaches.
Pepe Di’Iasio, from Wales High School in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, said heads want ‘clarity, direction and resourcing’ from central government as the new term approaches (Gareth Fuller/PA)
PA Archive
Dave Higgens12 August 2021

A headteacher has said it is “ludicrous” that central government does not have a clear plan to enable schools and students to negotiate the ongoing challenges of the forthcoming school year.

Speaking as he congratulated his GCSE students on their results at Wales High School, in Rotherham South Yorkshire Pepe Di’Iasio said heads want “clarity, direction and resourcing” as the new term approaches.

Mr Di’Iasio told the PA news agency on Thursday: “If young people are our priority then we should be putting this plan in place as soon as possible.”

He said: “In terms of the strategic approach and in terms of a plan, there’s very little coming out of central government.

“I think all headteachers want some information, and we need some support about where we going to go, to support those students who are coming through into Year 11 as we return in September, who have also missed 18 months of education.

“And students going into Years 12 and 13 not knowing what their exams are going to look like and how they might be tested… All that uncertainty still remains within the system.”

We want to give confidence to our young people to let them know we've got what we need to support them, we've got the resources to help them and, at the moment, that reassurance isn't there from central government

Pepe Di'Iasio, headteacher, Wales High School

He added: “We want to give confidence to our young people to let them know we’ve got what we need to support them, we’ve got the resources to help them and, at the moment, that reassurance isn’t there from central government.”

Asked what heads want from the Government, Mr Di’Iasio said: “Clarity, direction and resourcing to help us make sure we can put in place what’s needed.”

He went on: “We had an awful day last year when we were focusing on algorithms and the outcomes for students, and I think we went into a winter when we had no Plan B and no Plan A really, for what we were going to do in the event of another lockdown and another virus hitting us.

“We return this summer and look at an autumn term again where there is still no Plan B and still don’t know what’s happening this year.

“And I think that is just ludicrous.

“We need to make sure that central government takes time to take a review, look at what the options are during the course of the autumn term, have some planning in place for the eventuality and possibility of risks that can come out in the next two or three months.”

Mr Di’Iasio said teachers need to know how testing will be carried out next summer.

“I think we’d all agree that we’d want to see exams return because they’re the fairest way of assessing students,” he said. “But we don’t know what they’re going to be assessed on and how they’re going to be assessed yet.

“We have no idea about the resourcing that’s going to be available to enable us to support students for that.”

He added: “There is a tsunami of issues connected to mental health coming through schools at the moment and there’s very little support connected to that.”

(PA Graphics)
PA Graphics

Mr Di’Iasio said his school is running summer schools for Year 6 children arriving in September and also for current students who need further help.

And he said he “could not be happier” with the GCSE results he was seeing on Thursday morning.

Wales High School student Ellie Reddish, 16, said she had done better than she thought she would after a nervous night waiting.

“I’m really happy with myself because last night I was worrying, I was thinking ‘What am I going to get?’, but it’s all right now,” she said.

Asked about the last 18 months of interrupted study, she said: “It was a challenge but we all managed it and I’m proud of how I’ve done.”

Rio Simpson, also 16, said he also did a bit better than he had expected and was pleased with his grades.

He said the last school year had been “a bit all over the place” and he worried he had not earned the grades he had received.

But he added that he is hoping for normality when he enters sixth form next month.

“Let’s just hope everything is back on track by the time we get there. It is what it is.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in