Longest school term ever? No, just tough adjusting to post-lockdown life

I spoke with a school principal last week who described the first term of 2022 as being the longest term in school history.

Of course, it actually hasn’t been. Ten weeks is the norm for Victorian school terms and we cop the occasional eleven-weeker as a quirk of the calendar or when we shapeshift the whole school year to accommodate the Olympic Games.

The first term of school felt longer than 10 weeks which is the norm.Credit:iStock

You see, it isn’t the time that’s changed, but the people.

Understanding this commences with an examination of our kids. They’ve been changed by the interruptions of lockdowns and by the lack of social cohesion and interaction that they’ve endured.

In no way am I suggesting that this was avoidable in a pandemic, but that it’s just the reality we face. And while I contend strongly that a slow, steady and patient readjustment to learning in the company of others is more than possible, the first steps are a struggle.

Teachers are reporting increased fights among students who no longer know the basics of getting along and reduced stamina for both learning all day and for collaborating.

After lunch periods in many schools have become tracts of time when productive learning has been replaced by a hope that we can hang on until the bell without a student meltdown or three.

Teachers are reporting increased fighting between students.

Our students are currently educationally pudgy and it’s going to take several days at the learning gym to get them back to match fitness. We need to stay patient.

The view from a teacher perspective is even more alarming. We had a bedraggled and demoralised teaching workforce before COVID hit now trying to embark upon the recovery.

As yet another principal described to me, the current work challenges are enormous and far beyond what we’d normally expect. We’re racing unrealistic timelines and straining to meet unrealistic expectations about students “catching up” both socially and economically.

Schools are rightly petrified that NAPLAN or ATAR numbers may not compare well to the almost inexplicable positive blip that we so celebrated in Victoria last year. And if they don’t, then we can expect public scorn and criticism rather than a thanks for swimming against an educational riptide.

Many teachers felt demoralised before the pandemic hit.Credit:istock

We must remember that our teachers are people too. They have families impacted by COVID, they care for elderly relatives and they have family businesses struggling to make ends meet.

And then there’s those who lead and support our teachers. Never in my career have I ever found more stressed principals. Never have I seen so many in pure survival mode. And scarily, never have I heard so many of them considering a different career.

It’s become, for many, all a bit too much. These are skilled, professional and creative people and they are slowly being picked off either by industry or by the lure of an early retirement.

This leaves us in the greatest educational challenge of our time. We’re really about to lose all of our great educators. And then what?

Whereas teachers and principals once had the third of the three bears – just right – level of attrition in that those who wouldn’t step up or couldn’t cope moved on, we’re now losing those who are the most capable, competent and dedicated.

Principals are already drowning in paperwork, administrivia and distraction, yet one of them commented to me last week that she’d spent 70 per cent of her week covering classes due to COVID-related teacher absences.

Another was left with no choice but to pile 95 Year 1 students into a gym to watch Toy Story for the afternoon after three early childhood teachers were forced home at lunchtime.

The worst part for me, as a passionate advocate for our schools, is to see that the schools most affected by COVID interruptions are those that already had the least.

Not a single member of our community benefits when we tilt the odds against some kids getting the education they need and in favour of kids who already have the longest head starts in life.

So stark has the problem of inequity become in our country that the Australian Council of Educational Leaders chose it as the theme for its acclaimed national conference last year.

It’s our largest challenge and all sectors are aware of it and speaking about it – even those who are beneficiaries of a politically-motivated funding model that is an anchor on our international standing.

And while we citizens and parents can’t personally change that model, we can afford just a little considerationtowards your local teachers and principals. Please thank them, think of them and respect them for no other reason than we can’t lose any more good ones as the next term rolls around.

Term two must be better. It just must.

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