Looking to the new school year: A Q&A with Caroline Wright

A Q&A with Caroline Wright, Director General at BESA (British Educational Suppliers Association) about challenges for both schools and education vendors ahead of the next academic year.

How do you see the education landscape looking for the new school year?

I would expect educationalists and suppliers to view the year ahead with a mix of excitement and trepidation. School leaders and teachers will be looking forward to welcoming children back in the hope that they will endure fewer interruptions to teaching, following the withdrawal of bubble restrictions. Suppliers will be looking forward to more face-to-face interaction for education training now that external events and exhibitions are able to go ahead. However, with a mostly unvaccinated school-aged population and Covid-19 still at large within communities, schools will still face the challenge of supporting pupils who contract the virus and have to be self-isolate while they recover.

Similarly, teaching unions have called for the Government to provide funding and support to help them better plan and redesign school premises to improve the health and wellbeing aspects of school layout – including better ventilation and better use of outdoor and indoor space. BESA’s school design and equipment members strongly support this and would like to see schools to receive additional support and finance from Government to help them make these important safety improvements to the national school estate.

What would you say are the biggest challenges schools are facing?

Funding: It was the biggest challenge schools faced before Covid and it remains the biggest challenge now. Schools need more funding, full stop.

Learning recovery: The learning gap has grown wider during Covid, and it will be even harder for schools to use existing resources to teach across the huge range of abilities and needs (both emotional and learning) of their pupils. Digital curriculum publishers can help schools with this challenge as long as the DfE continues to allow schools the autonomy to select the resources they use in their own settings, rather than continuing to move in the direction of a more prescriptive approach where just a handful of centralised resources are promoted or approved.

Teacher workload: This remains a huge challenge for school leaders and classroom teachers and we need to make sure that they have the tools, training and, quite frankly, TLC, to help support and retain our amazingly dedicated and talented workforce.

How have vendors adapted over the last year and what lessons have been learned?

Suppliers have been exceptionally fleet of foot in working with teachers to help create, adapt, and shape solutions to a whole range of varying school circumstances.

• Hardware and infrastructure providers have, in many cases, become valued and treated almost like additional members of staff in terms of the support and advice they have provided schools on technical capacity and systems issues.
• E-security and safeguarding specialists have helped massively upskill teaching staff to the challenges presented by the new blend of remote teaching and learning practices.
• Digital curriculum publishers rapidly pivoted to develop and provide wide ranges of additional resources, whether that be for independent use by students, guided learning with teachers, or for parental use to support their children.

Internationally, suppliers have also had to adapt to new ways of working and make connections and contacts without the normal access points of exhibitions and trade missions. New routes to connection made through platforms like LendED and the work of the Department for International Trade and BESA have helped, but many suppliers are looking forward to being able to travel again later in the Autumn to hold face-to-face client and new customer meetings – the first key international event being the GESS exhibition in Dubai in November.