Symphony Question: Should all pupils in the UK wear masks to school?

To mask, or not to mask? Our national question results are back with a bang!

It’s the new academic year and our Symphony Question series has returned. Good thing too, because we believe supporting young people by giving them clear opportunities to have their voice heard is more important now than ever.

Whilst we have all lived - and are still living - through a tumultuous period, this is especially true for young people. They’re now returning to a very different looking school, and it’s understandable that they might feel a loss of control, influence and belonging in these strange and changed environments.

How do we address this? Well, we hand the reigns back over to them and get them using their voices. Especially on subjects like social distancing / bubbles in school.

This is going to be our focus for the first couple of Symphony Questions this year, and the first one is a belter:

Question: Should all pupils in the UK wear masks to school?

Result: Not in our schools, please!

It’s a fascinating result. Nearly 1,500 voices afar a part as Maidstone and Manchester, Leicester and Leeds have contributed and opinion isn’t just divided across the spectrum of answers, but each opinion commands almost identical support!

Somewhat surprisingly (to me anyway) the overall wining is ‘no, nobody’ with young people showing the most support for discarding masks altogether.

One student from Sutton Valance Preparatory School represents this body of opinion well when they stated:

“We’re better off with teachers wearing face shields”

Maybe this is a reflection of the greater risks to adults? Or, equally it could be a message that mask-wearing for students - especially in Primary settings - just adds further complication and discomfort to an already trying time.

It is important to note, as well, just how close the winning margin was with ‘just secondary schools’ coming second by only one vote. This group of young people are clearly up-to-date with government guidance of the time and support mask wearing where the evidence shows it is needed: secondary schools.

Lastly then, ‘Yes, it helps you to feel safe’ finished last, but still commands a huge number of support. Why? Because of the emotion of out time and the idea that, even if it isn’t supported scientifically, wearing a mask can influence your feeling of safety at a time when so many of us can feel unsafe.

This really is a curious and intriguing result.

What can we learn from these results?

I think there’s one major lessons to learn from our first national result of the year:

Young people have an opinion on social distancing in schools

This might seem an obvious thing to say, but it’s worth reiterating. Outside of the nature of the result, young people clearly want to share their views on our response to the pandemic and having them heard goes a long way to support their wellbeing as we move forward.

We should be giving them a platform to express these opinions as much as possible.

What’s the best thing about being back in school?

Our New Year’s Resolution to our membership is to help them come up with relevant, engaging and thoughtful questions to help get all pupils having their say. Schools usually come up with their own meetings, but we’re giving them additional questions if they’d like them.

Following the successful trial of this form in our General Election Question Series, for 2020 we’ll be recommending a blend of action-led & topical questions to ask each week.

Want to get involved or suggest a question? Send us an email at membership@smartschoolcouncils.org.uk