PUPILS SET TO STAY AT HOME UNTIL EASTER
PaRentS and pupils are likely to be relying on remote learning for months to come as the prospect of schools re-opening in February or March recedes.
education Secretary Gavin Williamson is said to be on the brink of confirming the gloomy outlook, with many head teachers believing a delay until april or even May is most likely.
Writing in today’s Mail, Mr Williamson says he cannot give a date for a return yet, making this paper’s laptops campaign all the more important to ensure ‘learning does not suffer’.
But a source told the Sunday times: ‘We are in this for the long haul. although we have not arrived at an exact date when we think schools will go back, it will not be after half-term.’
Other sources said this timeline was ‘speculative’ and that Mr Williamson remained committed to getting children back as soon as the scientific evidence allows.
as recently as last thursday, he said that he hoped schools would be able to reopen before easter, although Downing Street pointedly declined to endorse his comments.
Kevin Courtney, co-general secretary of the national education Union, said talk of reopening before easter sounded ‘optimistic’ and warned: ‘It could be as late as May.’
Speaking to broadcasters yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock also said he held out hope that schools in england could possibly reopen by easter, but it would depend on the levels of infection in the community.
‘We have got to look at the data. We have got to look at the impact of the vaccination programme,’ he said.
Robert Halfon, chairman of the
Commons education committee, said last night that Downing Street should prioritise reopening schools.
Restrictions should come ‘in other parts of the economy and society’ to get schools open ‘sooner rather than later,’ he said. ‘We have to make a decision – is educating our children the most important single thing we should be doing as a nation?’ he told the times.
‘My message to the Prime Minister is that every day we don’t open the schools properly we are damaging the life chances of the younger generation, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.’
Last week Mr Williamson said the
Government would give parents and teachers ‘good notice’ of reopening.
‘We’d aim to give teachers, pupils and parents two weeks’ notice so they’re able to get ready and we’ll always be looking for how we can get schools open for all at the earliest possible moment,’ he said.
Schools in england were told to close again from January 5, after some primaries had been back for just one day after the holidays, with Boris Johnson admitting they may act as ‘ vectors of transmission’ despite being safe for pupils.
to address the blow to children, the Government is planning to expand its tutoring initiative to help those most at risk of getting left behind.
the Department for education is hoping to provide 15 hours of tuition in the next academic year for 450,000 disadvantaged children, up from its current target of 250,000.
But, to add to parents’ headaches, the eventual reopening of schools is not expected to be consistent across the country. Deputy chief medical officer for england Dr Jenny Harries told MPs last week that a regional approach may be taken when deciding how schools reopen, with London potentially first to see pupils returning to classrooms.
appearing before the education committee, Dr Harries responded to questions about schools by saying: ‘I think it’s likely that we will have some sort of regional separation of interventions.’
She added that there were ‘glimmers of hope’ in London, which was first affected by the new variant, and so could be first to recover.
‘It could be as late as May’
THE last thing any parent wanted was to see schools closing to most pupils – as they had to at the start of this month. I’m a parent myself and I completely understand that this will have caused no end of disruption for those of you who are trying to juggle a family and working from home at the same time.
However well parents are managing to support their children while they learn from home, there really is no substitute for them being in school.
I can assure you as soon as Covid infection rates are back under control then we will get them back there as quickly as we can.
In the meantime, thanks to our superb teachers, every child can now expect to have high-quality lessons remotely and I’m delighted that the Daily Mail and its generous readers will be helping our remote education programme. Of course, for this to be successful pupils need the right devices to work from and we are well aware that this is not a given. not every pupil has a laptop and not every family has internet access.
I want to assure you that we have been working incredibly hard to deliver the necessary tech across the country so that every child – especially those from disadvantaged homes – can keep their learning on track. We have now delivered an extra 800,000 laptops and tablets on top of the ones schools already had – and nearly 240,000 have gone out in the past couple of weeks.
Laptops and devices have been in high demand across the world and it has been a massive procurement exercise to get hold of them. In spite of that, we are making sure that 1.3million devices are going to be distributed to children in England who need them. Our Get Help With Technology programme, which has been distributing laptops, tablets and 4G routers with pre-loaded data since May last year, goes hand-in-hand with the Government’s work with mobile network operators, enabling schools to request free data uplifts for disadvantaged families.
We have also set up a new online ‘one stop shop’ for all schools and colleges to help them keep up to date with the latest information and guidance on remote education as well as tips and advice from teachers and leaders. Every pupil can now expect to have either recorded or live direct teaching as well as time to complete tasks they’ve been set as they learn from home.
Although teachers know what materials work best for their own lessons, there is also plenty of other material from external providers available for them to use. Last Easter, for instance, a group of 40 teachers launched the Oak national Academy. This new venture was created in two weeks flat and has gone on to produce thousands of high-quality teacher-led videoed lessons.
These include topics as varied as blues musicianship and an examination of the effects of urban sprawl on local communities. The BBC is also providing a mass of educational content across its channels to support home learning.
And these are just a couple of examples of an immense industry response – from textbook publishers, from digital teaching tools and from training providers – to extend help to schools.
While I can’t give you a date for when children will be back at their desks, I do want to assure everyone that we are doing everything in our power to make sure that their learning does not suffer. Backed by the support of the Mail and its readers, I have no doubt remote education will continue to go from strength to strength and will help keep our pupils’ learning on track.