Covid: Teaching in Wales 'must reinvent itself in a day again'

Wales' secondary school system "must reinvent itself in a day again", a headmaster has said.

Ian Loynd, of St Teilo's in Cardiff was responding to Thursday's announcement all secondary schools and colleges would move work online from Monday.

He said it gave parents and carers insufficient time to make arrangements.

Parent Clare Ferguson-Walker said it was "the right decision", claiming schools were unable to manage social distancing.

"It's always a rapidly changing position and the news came late," Mr Loynd told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast with Oliver Hides.

"Heads had been asking (about the possibility of an early closure) for a number of weeks."

But despite questioning the fact there was only one working day's notice, Mr Loynd agreed it was "the right decision".

He said it came down to a choice between the inevitable "families voting with their feet" and keeping children home, or changing teaching in a "calm and controlled way", as he believes it will be by Monday.

Mr Loynd pointed to the earlier lockdown as giving teachers experience of managing homeworking, adding: "I can only hope we are open in the new year as planned, but we will have to see as the position changes.

"My view is the best place for children is the classroom, but it has to be safe."

He said his school had been tracking more than 30 coronavirus cases a day, with almost 500 in total since the start of the pandemic and 33 positive involving children.

"In 16 years as a teacher, this is the hardest I've faced. But 99.5% of teaching has still been face-to-face," he said.

"Just 0.5% has been lost. So while it's been difficult, it's working."

Clare Ferguson-Walker, from Tavernspite, Pembrokeshire, said she has one son in year eight and another child who is home educated, and that she was "really glad" the decision had been made.

"I'm surprised it didn't happen before this," she said.

"They haven't been able to properly police social distancing and my son has been coming home telling me who he's been wrestling with."

While she understands it will be hard for some parents, she added: "I'll get the tree up this weekend and make it as magical as possible."

Wales' Education Minister Kirsty Williams said on Thursday closures were part of a "national effort to reduce transmission of coronavirus".

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

"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."

The announcement does not extend to primary or special schools, with the education minister "encouraging" them to remain open.

However, a number of local authorities have announced they will also be halting face-to-face learning in primaries early.

But Children's Commissioner Sally Holland said the move was "not the right decision" for children and young people in Wales and had yet to see any scientific advice to support the move.

"Whilst accepting the severity of the public health emergency and the responsibilities all of us have to keep each other safe, this decision compounds the disruption to our children's education over the last few months," she said.

Ms Holland said her "hope and expectation" was schools would reopen in January.

"It's hard to get it right, but you have to look at it from the perspective of children who have missed so much," she added.