Column by South Gloucestershire Council's cabinet member for education, skills and employment, Erica Williams.

I am delighted to say that we will be welcoming all children and young people back to schools and colleges from Monday (8 March). Our priority is a permanent return to face-to-face education as we know school is the best place for social and educational development.

Many parents and carers may be nervous about the return to school. We would like to reassure you that we have been working closely with school leaders to ensure a safe return. We have produced local guidance that both complements the Government’s guidance and helps schools enhance safety measures inside and outside the classroom. Your school will contact you to explain their arrangements for your child’s return. These plans may differ between schools as each school bases them on individual risk assessments in line with latest guidance.

Our ground-breaking ‘Recovery Curriculum’ means that pupils will be uniquely well equipped to rapidly bounce back from this past year’s disruption. While initially developed to mitigate the loss of learning locally, the curriculum has since been widely embraced by schools throughout South Gloucestershire and beyond. Since June 2020 we have authored and distributed a vast range of resources to support schools, staff and students. We all know that every child and family has been affected by the pandemic and our schools will continue using many of these resources. In last month’s budget, we announced a further £1.2 million investment for the launch of phase two of the curriculum. This will further accelerate improvements in our pupils’ outcomes.

We will also soon relaunch the Online Pupil Survey to get a detailed view of how our children and young people are feeling about different aspects of their education, to better support them. We will also focus on improving the transition process – from different levels of the education system – through targeted investment.

Finally, I would like to thank you all for the hard work and sacrifices that you have made to support our pupils’ learning over the past year. At the heart of our approach is what is best for children and young people which is to be with friends and receive face-to-face teaching. Both are so important for their learning and wellbeing.