What word best describes how the weeks ahead will be for people who work and learn in schools? From the plethora of options, could it be “intense” ?

As the Line of Duty credits rolled on Sunday night, and the reality of the days ahead began to bite, that was one description that was conspicuous on social media. “Tomorrow marks the start of the most intense teaching term of my career,” wrote one secondary teacher. Another said that, while they were looking forward to seeing pupils and colleagues - and feeling something like normal again - they were not so keen on “what will clearly be the most stressful and intense six weeks imaginable”.

The “intensity” is being fuelled by what another teacher described as “assessment hell on wheels”. Suffice to say that it didn’t wash with most when, last week, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) released a statement that insisted that “there is no requirement to replicate full formal exams or prelims this year”.

That, as many teachers have pointed out, would appear to contradict the reality on the ground and, indeed, subject-specific guidance from the SQA. There are countless assessments taking place over the coming weeks that will, to students, look and feel like an exam, regardless of semantics. “Intense” may even feel a little euphemistic for an experience that, if the worst-case scenario plays out, many fear will end up being an even worse qualifications debacle than the one everyone went through last August.

Covid and exams: Another assessment debacle?

This is, of course, not the only source of anxiety just now for those who work in education. Primary schools are not exactly oases of calm either, amid all the Covid uncertainty, although they have had more time to adjust to pupils being back in school. There are many thousands of secondary students who have barely set foot inside their schools since before Christmas - with all the stress that entails - and what they returned to this week is still some way off “normal”.

After having the importance of two-metre distancing drummed into them ad nauseam, that is no longer deemed a requirement in secondaries. Staff and students will, however, have to wear face coverings wherever they go and there is an expectation that they will all undergo twice-weekly Covid tests. From staggered lunchtimes to the sudden embracing of outdoor learning, there will be constant reminders that we remain in the grip of a global crisis whose course is far from run.

And yet, despite all the understandable anxiety about how safe this form of school really is, the picture emerging this week is far from one of unremitting gloom. Teachers’ very purpose, the reason so many go into the job, is to help young lives flourish. There have been huge strides made with remote learning over the past year but you’d still struggle to find a teacher who’d say it can replace the energy, camaraderie and creative sparks that you find in a thriving classroom.

As one teacher put it, the “dread” about the volume of assessment ahead was, to some degree, tempered by the excitement about “teaching ‘properly’ (as close to it as we can)”. Or, as another teacher, drily summing up the competing emotions, said this week: “Really looking forward to seeing the kids but pretty worried about catching Covid.”

There is, undeniably, a lot of excitement about being reunited with pupils in the classroom, and that - allied with the unstinting commitment to pupils that teachers have displayed throughout Covid - will fuel schools over the coming weeks.

But until staff and students feel safe in the simple act of walking back through their school doors, we can’t rightly talk about things being back to normal.

@Henry_Hepburn

This article originally appeared in the 23 April 2021 issue under the headline “‘Assessment hell on wheels’? It’s all in the line of duty for teachers”