James Carr | Schools Week

‘Covid jabs within walking distance’: schools offer up sites for vaccine centres

Schools are offering up their sites to be used as vaccination centres as they face being closed to the majority of pupils for the foreseeable future, with one head declaring: “We have hundreds of thousands of square feet of schools empty right now, let’s use them.” The idea has received backing from school leaders and […]

Williamson promise to test teachers before returning is ‘logistically impossible’

School leaders have accused the education secretary of making “logistically impossible” promises when writing for a national newspaper after claiming staff would be offered Covid-19 tests before returning to work – despite the tests only arriving today. While writing in The Mail on Sunday, Gavin Williamson urged teachers and parents to get their children back […]

Improvement support for struggling schools delayed by months, DfE report finds

Struggling schools saw promised improvement support under a new government scheme delayed by up to three months, leading some to pay for training out of their own funds instead. Last year, schools rated ‘requires improvement’ were eligible for three days of support from national leaders of education (NLE) to boost standards. The scheme was introduced […]

DfE issues wrong guidance in leaflet to help explain mass testing, schools told

The government has published incorrect guidance in a leaflet aimed at helping schools explain to staff, pupils and parents how the mass testing programme will work, leaders have been told. The Confederation of School Trusts (CST) wrote to its members today warning a Department for Education leaflet “contains errors and will be corrected today”. The leaflet […]

Government accused of ‘unacceptable attack’ on teachers’ pay

The government has been accused of making an “unacceptable attack” on teacher pay, after the education secretary instructed the body that oversees the matter not to recommend rises for most teachers. Gavin Williamson has written to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) asking for its recommendations on “uplifts” for the lowest-paid teachers only. The STRB […]

DfE extends free sanitary products scheme for an extra year

The government has extended its free sanitary products scheme for schools and colleges for an extra year. Schools and 16 to 19 organisations will continue to be able to order products for any students who need them until December 2021, the Department for Education has announced today. However, the DfE has not said whether it […]

Covid: School attendance falls again after brief boost

School attendance has declined again following two weeks of improvement – with nearly 50,000 more children off last week for Covid-19 related reasons than the week before. The latest attendance data from the Department for Education (DfE) shows that between 7 and 9 per cent of the pupil population – up to 694,000 children – […]

Greenwich backs down over school closures after legal threat leaves ‘no choice’

A London council which asked its schools to switch to online learning for the final week of term has now asked them to remain open following a legal order from the government. Last night education secretary Gavin Williamson issued a “temporary continuity direction” under the emergency Coronavirus Act 2020 ordering the London Borough of Greenwich […]

Pupils 6 months behind and teachers ‘physically fatigued’ – Ofsted’s final ‘visits’ analysis

Ofsted has identified six months’ learning loss in some pupils, a “wide variability” in numbers returning to school and “physical fatigue” among staff in its latest report from interim visits to schools this year. The watchdog has published analysis based on 297 one-day visits carried out in November. Here’s what they found. 1. Some […]