Williamson: Longer school days among range of options to help children who’ve missed out

THE Education Secretary today left the door open to lengthening the school day to help children catch up on learning missed during the pandemic.

Gavin Williamson, pictured, said he wanted to consult on measures to help pupils including extra teaching time. He said a “range of actions” to help pupils catch up were being looked at, and did not deny this could include making the school day longer. It comes after the Government announced an extra £400 million in funding to help children catch up on work they missed during the pandemic, along with £300 million announced for catch-up projects in January.

Secondary schools will be funded to run summer camps for pupils worst affected, and there will be extra money for the national tutoring programme.

Measures to lengthen the school day and make the holiday shorter are not mentioned in today’s plans. But asked if he was considering extending learning hours, Mr Williamson told Sky News: “We recently appointed Sir Kevan Collins to look at how we do education recovery — a man who has had so many years of experience. We are looking at a whole broad range of different options of how we can support schools, how we can support teachers but most importantly how we can support children.”

Pressed again, he replied: “We will be looking at how we can boost and support children in a whole range of different manners. But it’s not just about time and school, it’s about supporting teachers in terms of the quality of teaching.”

Teachers’ unions said allocating the money should be up to schools.

Lee Elliott Major, professor of social mobility at Exeter University, said it could take a decade to level the playing field in education.