The National Parent Forum of Scotland (NPFS) hosted a live Q&A webinar with John Swinney, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, on Tuesday, 16th June.
The event focused on the impact of COVID-19 and the issues related to the ‘blended’ learning approach for schools re-opening on the 11th August.
Parents and carers registering for the event reached 4,919, with over 3,000 attending on the night. The NPFS invited parents to post questions in advance and received over 1,600 emails with multiple questions.
A recording of the webinar is available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzOYSr8KsuY
Since hosting the Q&A, it was announced by the Deputy First Minister John Swinney on the 23rd July 2020 that the Scottish Government’s aim is for schools to re-open full-time in August, depending on scientific advice that it is safe to do so. Due to this, the answers to some of the questions within the Q&A need to be taken in the context of being answered prior to the announcement on the 23rd June.
However, many of the answers and much of the discussion detailed in full below remains relevant, and we hope that you find it helpful. The Scottish Government are due to announce on the 30th July 2020 the finals plan for the 11thAugust: either a full return or through the blended model based on the scientific advice available.
We appreciate all of your questions, comments, and feedback, and thank you to all of those who took part in the Q&A session. A full transcript of the Q&A is available below. We have also provided a list of questions and suggestions taken from the Chat Box during the webinar, and the results from the polls taken during the session.
We received a large number of questions by email and social media prior to the event, we are in the process of compiling all of these and will share them in the coming weeks. All of your questions and views will be added to our bank of parent feedback to inform our ongoing work representing parents.