COVID prompts a revolution in thinking about school

"Teachers had to move to online teaching and learning in just a few days and as a consequence, focused on deep learning and critical concepts, knowledge, understanding and skills."

This is not some phenomenon possible only owing to the relatively flexible work arrangements of independent schools.

The Australian Secondary Principals Association, which represents leaders in government schools, in QLD, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the two territories says there has been a deep and profound change in the relationship of schools to their communities and is predicting the rise of the "autonomous school".

The first thing that happened was schools became an information source for parents, especially in smaller communities. Principals became the oracles interpreting the arcane messages of government.

Emails to parents, once the vehicle for information about sport events and holidays, were explaining state health policy and showing how it could be implemented at a local level.

The next change was principals had to make decisions quickly, sometimes overnight, as curriculums were pared back to bare essentials, equipment was bought and borrowed, record-keeping went on line and students took home equipment from the classroom.

Teachers who had previously been takers of orders about what to teach and what materials to use were asked by principals to make up the rules as they went.

"Teachers have had to make choices, what do we take out of the curriculum? A lot of principals have been proud of the flexibility teachers have had in accepting all of that and doing a good job of it," said president of the Association, Andrew Pierpoint.

With that level of independence have come new ideas about how schooling might change.

For years 11 and year 12 there have been "meaningful discussions" in staffrooms around the country about switching to a post-pandemic model of four days in a classroom and one day working from home.

Students have not just embraced remote learning, many of them have made good academic progress and have given feedback to teachers who have modified classes on the run. There's a very big thirst for working in groups, he said.

"We're in awe of the rapid change we've seen. The pivot to remote learning has been quick and effective and when we return to normal a lot of the old principles are going to disappear.

"We are not going back to where we were," Pierpoint says.

Despite his enthusiasm for change, he says it's not a revolution. Schools have always been central in communities, especially smaller ones.

He says the country teacher going to buy milk and bread on a Saturday has always held 16 parent / teacher meetings on their way to the store.

"But now school interprets the voice of government for mum and dad who are too busy. It has reinforced the place of the school.

"Even a big robust school with 2000 kids in Sydney. But in a small town like Bourke, it's even more important. It's a refuge and provides an even keel."

Independent schools with shorter chains of command and powerful boards have often been first movers in adopting new pedagogical practices.

St Paul's School is on the leading edge of what is achievable. In 2017 it was listed by Cambridge University as one of the top 100 learning institutions in the world. The school's philosophy is to "equip young people for an uncertain future by providing an education worth having".

Like all schools in low-COVID Queensland, St Paul's resumed face-to-face teaching in late May, once the lockdown in the state ended.

Browning said students came back having learnt new skills.

"We found kids came out of the experience better off. They learned independence. They were more resourceful. They kept up with their work. It was the opposite of what people expected."

He welcomed the lessons of COVID-19 saying he sees nothing wrong in putting kids into difficult situations.

"As an independent school, it's not only about the academic. It's about the social and emotional. We have plenty of programs that are not part of the national curriculum.

"We put kids into difficult situations in things like outback treks. We give them complex problems and provocation and then put them into teams to solve those problems. COVID highlighted the benefit of that approach."

In a letter to parents in early September, he said: "We only develop resilience when faced with adversity and it is resilience that enables us to thrive.

"What this year has done more than any year following the Second World War is to show us that there is more to life than materialism, wealth, status or achievements."

This unexpected consequence of the pandemic which has been rippling through schools and households since March will feel familiar to most parents, even if they haven't put it into words.

The Australian Parents Council, which represents families of children in independent schools - including religious schools and the Catholic system - says there has "never been such a moment in the sun for parent engagement".

Many parents have been involved in teaching their kids this year and it has been eye-opening.

"Parents are getting an idea of what modern education looks like," says president Jennifer Rickard.

But they've been forced to be more engaged, emailing teachers and making joint decisions about what goes into a lesson, when the time is right to move to the next level etc.

"Relationships underpin everything in education. But that had been largely forgotten in the pursuit of academic achievement.

"Now schools and parents are looking to build relationships. That requires a new flexibility.

"David Gonski was arguing about flexibility and flexible learning years ago. COVID has made it real."

Ominously Rickard says government and education policy makers are "the latecomers to the party".

This reflects a concern shared by principals, teachers and parents that the new flexibility and autonomy will be reined in by state education departments once the pandemic is over.

It's a familiar refrain in other sectors of the economy which have felt the pain and changed their practices as a result.

The former general manager of the Australian Curriculum at the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority and now an education advisor to the OECD, Phil Lambert, says there are signs globally of structural changes in thinking about teaching.

The OECD runs the Program for International Student Assessment, PISA, which has been delivering bad news to Australia - and other developed economies - on student performance in maths, reading and science.

Post COVID-19, Lambert says teachers, schools and policy developers are beginning to look at what the pandemic could feed into curriculum development.

"COVID has brought into sharp focus what is essential. What we need to equip kids. What are thing things that need to stay in the curriculum - what are the things that - with the stress of time pressure - we can afford to jettison?

"And what about exams and assessment? Can we assess student performance in other ways?"

For critics who are fearful that reform is another word for doing away with the basics of literacy and numeracy, Lambert has reassuring news.

The action of stripping away non-essentials means there is time to focus on literacy and numeracy.

The OECD's 2030 project which he is working on and will set out the core of proposed new curriculums has five fundamental competencies and of these literacy and numeracy are one and two.

"In no country I talk to is anyone talking about removing that core. Everybody sees these are the building blocks."

The other three competencies should be no surprise to anyone who has been home schooling a child this year: digital skills, health literacy and data literacy.

"The world is more complex. The OECD even has an acronym for it: VUCA, volatile. unpredictable, complex, ambiguous.

"What are the competencies you need to survive and thrive and navigate that world? These five competencies are what kids need. And the core is not up for grabs. Employers want people who can be self-starters, use IT, communicate, engage, don't need to be guided.

"Australia is part of the OECD and this will definitely come into the Australian curriculum."