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For all the many challenges of lockdown, the period of Covid-enforced isolation was also a catalyst for a huge surge of creativity. You saw that in the imaginative ways schools kept in touch with their pupils, in educators throwing themselves into online learning, in burgeoning pedagogical communities driven by the need to connect.

And teachers’ appetite for change grew, too. Things that may, at the turn of 2020, have been seen desirable but fanciful suddenly seemed within reach. As is so often the case in a time of crisis, there was a sense of flux from which, many hoped, bold new ways of doing things might emerge. A world without high-stakes, end-of-year exams? Learning communities where teachers and families worked in harmony? Schools that truly embraced the boundless possibilities afforded by technology? All these seemed more possible in the time of coronavirus.

It is far too early to say just how profoundly Covid-19 will change education. We can, however, gauge what it is that people want to see transformed. Last month, on a whim, I tweeted: “If you could change one thing about Scottish education overnight, what would it be?” I was inundated with responses, so I asked many of the people who got in touch to elaborate on how they would use their magic wand. This is what they said:

Declutter the primary curriculum

We have been threatening to declutter the primary curriculum since shortly after the “flexibility” of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) took hold a decade ago.

But think of all that we do: maths, English, numeracy, literacy, 1+2 languages, art, music, drama, PE, science, technology, engineering, religious education, antiracist education, citizenship, global citizenship (now we’re taking over the world), learning for sustainability (now we have to fix the world), health and wellbeing. And don’t even start me on timensuming themed weeks.

I have heard from our education secretary and Education Scotland that we should declutter - but not much on how we do that.
Carolyn Ritchie is a primary teacher

Accept critical thinkers

This is for the grumpy teachers, the staffroom dissenters, the voices of doom and the ones who, given half a chance, would complain about everything and anything: I believe that far too many of us have stopped listening to their complaints.

But what if they are in fact our most critical thinkers? Whistleblowers who aren’t afraid to speak out in the interests of those they teach - do we criticise them (or ignore them) because we believe what they are doing or saying is wrong? I would argue (for the most part) that there exists a culture of not being able to speak out in teaching. Why does it feel so difficult for teachers to speak out? Whatever it is, I wish it would stop.
Paul Hamilton is a history and legal studies teacher

Do more on additional support needs with student teachers

I would include more comprehensive additional support needs (ASN) training in initial teacher education programmes.

Being able to recognise certain behaviours and traits from the beginning of a teacher’s career would allow them to understand the needs of the student (disruptive pupils, for example, are often those who are disengaged), and have a flexible approach to the curriculum that supports pupils who are academically advanced but socially challenged.

If teachers were able to use their initiative rather than simply wait for direction, that could be life changing for those students with unrecognised ASN.
Farah Farzana is a community activist, blogger and member of the University of Glasgow’s Education, Public Policy and Equity Network

End the SQA’s exams monopoly

The recent Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) exams debacle should hasten the end of the SQA’s near monopoly on exams in Scotland and open the process up to more equitable competition.

An additional exam board or two could help generate a better culture of assessment - one that is open and more transparent, and more accountable to the teachers and students it serves. Teachers have been arguing for years that the SQA has become far too arrogant and does not listen.
Diarmuid McAuliffe is subject coordinator of expressive arts at the University of the West of Scotland

Start school at age 7

I would do away with the Victorian convention of four-year-olds being tested, asked to sit still, responding to a bell and learning the three Rs. Our Nordic neighbours did it years ago; as a result, they have happier children who regularly top world league tables (if that’s your thing).

Let’s adopt a child-centred kindergarten stage for all under-7s, with an emphasis on confidence and resilience. Kindergarten wouldn’t be somewhere to deposit your child once you’d returned to the workplace, but somewhere they’d be nurtured and learn through play. We should also give the work of teaching these children the recognition it deserves, through professional training and better pay.

A societal shift is needed in how we introduce children to education.
Jane Somers is a parent and social studies student in the Scottish Borders, and previously worked in education in the Scottish arts sector

Reform reduced class-contact time

Give teachers protected collegiate planning time, but remove the revolving door of cover for reduced class-contact time.

It unsettles children; learning does not fit neatly into multiples of 50 minutes. Even occasional staff absences create chaos in already complex timetables, and management cover takes support away from crucial aspects of running a school.

Perhaps there needs to be a rethink around the structure of the school week so that already stretched teams are not left to cover each other. I’m sure teachers would appreciate a ringfenced, guaranteed time each week when they could give serious thought to improving learning and teaching.
Jennifer Knussen is a primary headteacher

Boost access to decent technology

Lockdown shone a light on the disparity and lack of adequate resourcing with digital technology. A decade ago, I was teaching in England and had access to decent broadband, as well as a laptop that docked with my classroom interactive wipeboard. We had a set of pupils’ laptops, which connected to the school wi-fi - and they always worked.

Contrast this with the recent experience of Scottish teachers trying to teach from home while their own kids needed to access online learning, all sharing a single, outdated, PC. And at least one local authority set protections so devices would not work off site. While teachers and learners struggled, valuable resources sat unused in schools.

The advantage of a centralised education system like Scotland’s is purchasing power. We managed this with Glow [the national digital learning platform], so why not negotiate a nationwide contract for laptops and broadband? Teachers deserve the technology and infrastructure to do their jobs, now more than ever.
Richard Holme is an education lecturer at the University of Dundee

Make outdoor learning a right

Outdoor learning with a residential experience can be life changing. Pupils who have been away on such trips have fond memories and value the impact. Indeed, many children who struggle in school find themselves excelling in such a situation.

Our children need time in nature to rebuild broken confidence about spending time near each other, and we will need the ability for outdoor learning to narrow that attainment gap between the rich and poor in our society.

These experiences should be seen as a right, rather than just nice to have.
Matt Robinson is Scotland director for Learning through Landscapes, an outdoor learning and play charity

Improve support for ASN pupils

I work with learners with ASN who attend a special school. In our local authority, four special schools used the same location for our lockdown hub. Learners with complex ASN can find a change of environment overwhelming, so we had concerns.

However, the pupils who attended actually appeared more relaxed during lockdown, while anecdotal evidence from some parents suggested the positive impact continued at home. This, we concluded, was why: more adults in classrooms; a greatly relaxed timetable; smaller class sizes.

All these things led to a reduction in sensory overload for learners and staff. It was as if we were in a safe, sheltered space away from the overwhelming experiences of the outside world.

I wish every learner had adequate support for the entirety of their school day - and that teachers and support staff had enough time to plan, resource and work together.
Jenny Harvey is a principal ASN teacher

Abolish SQA jargon

SQA documentation should be written with the pupils sitting the qualification in mind. Currently, SQA documents are jargon-filled and technical, and so largely inaccessible to teenagers. Changing that would provide young people with more independence and control over their learning.

Sometimes, through no fault of their own, young people are faced with a non-subject-specialist teacher, or with extended periods of teacher absence, but by making course documentation more accessible, pupils would be able to take more control themselves. It would also go a long way to helping out less-experienced teachers - and at minimal financial cost.
Paul Bisland is a modern studies teacher

Make all teachers attachment-aware and trauma-informed

“All behaviour is communication,” we often hear, but are we curious enough about the causes of behaviour? When trauma or poor attachment is woven into a child’s life, the behaviours they present can be frustrating, baffling and deeply concerning for teachers.

The attachment-aware, trauma-skilled approach of our team at Spartans Alternative School in Edinburgh is constantly evolving. We start from the statement: “What does this young person need from me today?” We can then seek to connect and understand them with empathy, flexibility and firm boundaries.

Some teachers tell me they’re not social workers. The truth is that all teachers are attachment figures; we’re teaching the whole person so the relationship we build with them must take into account all of the years up until the day we meet them in our classrooms.
Emma Easton is an alternative-school manager

Give equal weight to all subjects

I would love to see a primary school system where we gave equal weight to all subject areas. As the late, great Sir Ken Robinson argued, we need a more holistic approach that nurtures the diverse talents of all our children. We need an assessment system and a political narrative that support this. We should feel empowered to say to inspection teams, “Yes, they are first level in numeracy, but they’ve achieved second level in drama!”

I am not taking away from the importance of literacy and numeracy development. I see literacy as the cornerstone for all learning, development and future achievement, but it has to be developed creatively across the curriculum and assessed through multiple, diverse opportunities. Too many teachers say that they “don’t have time” to do music or drama because they need to focus on gaps in literacy and numeracy.

In the meantime, I’m off to our early years setting to see how they can support learning throughout our whole school - as they are, through their creative, curiosity-filled, play-based and child-led approach, the only ones actually getting it right.
Autumn Macaulay is a primary headteacher

Ditch ‘golden time’

“Isn’t golden time a wonderful thing?” I asked my daughter. She told me that, yes, everyone likes it because you have fun and can play Lego with your friends. “Everyone?” I asked. “Well,” she said, “not always - some of my classmates do lose golden time.”

These classmates need extra support with their learning, it turns out, and have a hard time at home, which affects how they act. They struggle to listen all the time.

“We all hear the teacher giving them warnings,” my daughter explained, “but she always has to move their name on to the ‘sad cloud’.” I asked her why it was called that. “When they have to sit watching everyone else playing and having fun, they look sad and not included, and sometimes others laugh at them,” she said.

And this was her point: if the purpose was to improve behaviour, it’s not working.
Lynne Binnie is an educational psychologist

Remove the fear of change

If I could change one aspect of Scottish education overnight, it would be to suck out the fear. I would go at it with my vacuum cleaner, hoover it out of every shadowy corner and expel it from every quiet crevice where it lies festering, allowing doubt and hesitation to grow and multiply.

Fear of getting it wrong pervades our education system and it is what stops us from being truly great: fear of not keeping up, of being too innovative or not innovative enough. Fear is what keeps us rooted to the ground when we ought to have the courage to soar. How often has your gut told you something wasn’t right or could be better and almost immediately a little voice pops into your head warning you against shoogling the status quo?

Imagine what education would look like in this country if we all just shrugged that voice off and shoogled away anyway.
Susan Ward is a primary depute headteacher

Create more jobs for recently qualified teachers

I and the majority of my 2018-19 cohort of new teachers - and now, similarly, the 2019-20 cohort - find ourselves in a difficult employment position.

Some lucky individuals are on either temporary full-time contracts for the year or temporary part-time contracts - there are no permanent positions being advertised for primary. The unlucky ones are on zero-hours supply contracts, not knowing if or when work will become available. If there is no supply work, we do not get paid.

The vast majority of the last two cohorts of teachers where I live are desperately waiting for that supply call, for the council to use its Covid recovery funds. We are filled with anxiety over the future and the security of our employment.
Gemma Munro is a recently qualified primary teacher

Provide daily physical education

Given the current lifestyle that our children (and ourselves) have been living these past six months, there is now, more than ever, a case to make for schools to be encouraged to deliver daily PE to all school-aged children. Initiatives such as the Daily Mile have helped, but much more needs to be done. Research clearly shows that moderate-to-vigorous activity needs to happen for at least 40 minutes to reap the rewards.
Andy Dalziell is an education consultant and PE specialist

Keep things simple

For me, it would be just simplifying things to what’s worthwhile and necessary. If there is one thing we have learned recently, it is not to take school or education for granted.

More importantly, we have relearned the importance of human connection, community and sustainability. It’s about recognising that education is broader than any frameworks or assessment markers - it’s about the pursuit of a worthwhile life for all.
Rehana Shanks is a headteacher in Hong Kong who previously worked in Scotland

This article originally appeared in the 2 October 2020 issue under the headline “There can be only one”