Pupils fell two months behind due to lockdown
But new fears as cases start to rise again in parts of Solihull
SECONDARY school pupils in the West Midlands have fallen two months behind during a year of lockdown, a Department for Education investigation has revealed.
The study confirmed fears that pupils from lower-income families suffered the most damage to the disruption.
Lack of equipment such as laptops is one of the causes.
The study also found there were differences in the amount of education lost in different regions. While West Midlands children lost 2.1 months, those in the South East were just 1.3 months behind.
The findings were highlighted in a new report by the National Audit Office, the official spending watchdog, which said some pupils received more lessons at home than others. It said: “At secondary level, the type of school-led provision varied by economic status.
“Some 82 per cent of secondary pupil sin private schools had received active help, such as online classes, or video and text chat. By contrast, 64 per cent of secondary pupils in state schools from the richest one-fifth of households received active help, compared with 47 per cent of pupils from the poorest one-fifth.
“Schools in more deprived areas may have held back from adopting online activities to limit the impact of pupils’ unequal digital access at home.”
The Department for Education study was based on assessments of more than a million pupils. It found that schools in deprived areas have experienced higher levels of lost learning than other schools.
In secondary schools with a high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals, the average pupil was 2.2 months behind in reading by October 2020, while in schools with low rates of free school meal eligibility they were 1.5 months behind.
These figures take into account the fact that low-income pupils are likely to be behind in reading skills in normal circumstances, and show the difference caused specifically by the lockdown.
Although the National Audit Office highlighted the education gap between richer and less wealthy pupils, it also praised the Department for Education’s attempts to ensure pupils had equipment to learn at home , saying it provided 617,000 laptops, tablets and routers.
The NAO report said: “Research carried out for the Department early in 2021 found that, during 2020, the UK had delivered considerably more equipment than any of the other 19 European countries examined.”
NEARLY half of all adults in the West Midlands region have now been vaccinated. It means the vaccination programme has been rolled out faster in the West Midlands than in most other parts of the country.
A report from the Office for National Statistics shows that 47 per cent of adults in the region have received at least one vaccination. Another three per cent have been offered a vaccination and are waiting to have the jab.
Fewer than one in 100 people in the region said they would refuse to be vaccinated.
In the North East, 39 per cent of adults had been vaccinated. In London, the figure is just 31 per cent.
In other findings from the survey, four per cent of people in the West Midlands said they had not left their home for any reason in the past week.
And more than half of people in the West Midlands said they believed it would take at least 10 months before life “returns to normal”.
Professor Anthony Harnden, deputy chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said that all over-50s will be vaccinated within the next few weeks.
He said: “In primary care, we’re still vaccinating cohort six – all with underlying illness – and some of seven.
“But, throughout the country, we’re going down to cohort nine.
“Most people over the age of 50 will be vaccinated really within the next few weeks - so it is tremendously successful.
“Those first nine priority groups included 99 per cent of all hospitalisations and deaths, certainly in wave one of the pandemic, so we’re feeling very optimistic.
“We’re seeing a very sharp reduction in the deaths and hospitalisations throughout the country.”
Meanwhile, Covid cases are rising again in Solihull – with infections spiking in two areas of the borough.
Public health chiefs have issued a stark ‘third wave’ warning after coronavirus rates started to creep up in the area.
The borough now has the third highest rate of infections in the West Midlands, above Birmingham, Warwickshire and Coventry.
The rate on March 16 stood at 83.2 cases per 100,000 people – up from 54.1 on March 4 – and it was expected to continue rising.
Cases are concentrated in the Smith’s Wood and Kingshurst areas.
The news led Ruth Tennant, director of public health in Solihull, to issue a stark ‘third wave’ warning as she said: “It’s a clear reminder we’re not out of the woods yet”.
“This is a real concern and a clear reminder that we are not out of the woods yet. As we saw before Christmas when there was a huge surge in cases, once the new variant gets out,
it spreads very quickly, causing new outbreaks and transmitting around families and workplaces,” she said.
“This recent increase is concentrated in the Smith’s Wood and Kingshurst areas of the borough. But we could very quickly see this pattern change, as there are signs of increases in other areas as people seem to be out and about more.”
Vaccination roll-out is happening at pace in the borough and 44 percent of people in Solihull have had their first dose.
But Ms Tennant said: “This means many people have not been vaccinated at all and most are not fully protected yet. We know the average age of people in intensive care locally during the second wave was 57.
This still leaves many people at risk of being very severely affected by Covid. We need to take this as a very serious warning sign. We do not want a third wave.”
The health boss rules as they stand.
She said: “At this point, people can only meet one other person outdoors. Indoor mixing is not yet allowed and risks spreading the virus. You should continue to stay at home unless you need to go out for essential reasons, which includes education for children and young people.
“We need to stick with this, get back to doing the right things to get our rates lower and allow vaccination to do its job.”
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PLANS for what is thought to be a world-first carbon neutral skyscraper development to be built in Birmingham have been hailed by regional political leaders as “exciting”.
Developers of the Curzon Wharf proposals, out to public consultation from Friday, have claimed its green and energy-efficient credentials would make it the first mixed-use build of its kind anywhere in the world.
Plans by the Woodbourne Group include three residential towers, including two skyscrapers and a separate office block proposed as a life sciences hub filled with laboratory and research and development space.
The eye-catching canalside £360 million development is proposed to be located on Dartmouth Circus, at the city’s northern gateway, where the main Aston Expressway carries traffic in and out of the city.
Its location would be eight minutes’ walk from the new HS2 station, which is set to be operational from 2029.
The proposals could support up to
460 jobs during the build, and create about 1,000 jobs once complete, according to developers.
Backers have also claimed it will bring £151million into the wider regional economy during the fouryear build time, and another £50million once finished.
Tani Dulay, Woodbourne Group chief executive, said the development would create a “world-class and sustainable mixed-use ecosystem”,
with life sciences, a new breed of residential and student living with vast public spaces “never seen in Birmingham before”.
He added the build would position Birmingham “as the UK’s leading smart and sustainable city, helping to pave the way for the UK’s green revolution”.
The developers claim that at least 69 per cent of carbon emissions could be reduced across the three residential blocks through use of low and zero carbon technology.
Birmingham City Council has pledged to make the city and local authority carbon neutral by 2030, with a clean air zone which will see polluting vehicles pay to enter the city centre going live from June.
The Labour council leader, Ian Ward, welcomed the “exciting” development, adding it would put the city “at the forefront of green, sustainable development and underlines our determination to tackle the climate crisis”, as well as creating jobs.
Andy Street, Conservative West Midlands mayor, said the plans were “incredibly exciting” and “innovative”, with the potential not only to cut the region’s carbon footprint, but bring high-skilled, well-paid life sciences jobs to the city centre.
If it was built tomorrow, the site’s tallest structure – Boulton Tower – would be Birmingham’s tallest building at 172m (562ft), with almost 500 one- and two-bed rented apartments across 53 floors.
It would dwarf the city’s tallest existing structure – the BT Tower – which is 152m (498ft).
However, the development has competition in the field, with the taller-still 100 Broad Street residential tower block already granted planning permission by the city planners last year.
The shorter of the Curzon Wharf site’s skyscrapers, 41-storey Watt Tower, would provide accommodation for some of the city’s 80,000-plus students, with 732 flats in total.
The third housing block, named Galton Skytree, would provide 265 co-living units, pledged to be “bestin-class” when compared with other such housing schemes.
The development will also have 130,000 square feet of office, R&D and life science space, as well as retail and leisure amenity space, and public space.
It is estimated the completed build will bring in £2million a year in council tax and business rates, and attract a £4million one-off new homes bonus grant from the Government.
The city centre is in the throes of major redevelopment, much of it surrounding the under-construction HS2 Curzon Street Station, with several residential skyscrapers now in various stages of planning or development.
The public can have their say on the plans at www.curzonwharf.com