Coranavirus | Schools Week

Covid: School attendance data collection to go weekly from October

Schools will be asked to submit Covid-19 attendance data to the government on a weekly rather than daily basis from October, it has been announced. The educational setting status form, which has provided the government with information about attendance and Covid-related absences throughout the pandemic, will reopen for the autumn term on Thursday. In an […]

New report calls for dedicated ‘Office for Edtech’ to drive change

A dedicated Office for EdTech and Digital Skills should be established “at the heart of government” to drive “coherent national change”, a new report has recommended. The Edtech Advisory Forum, made up of school leaders and tech specialists, has released an interim report investigating the impact of Covid-19 on education and children’s services. The report, […]

£96m laptop contracts went to Tory donor’s firm

A firm handed almost £100 million worth of contracts to supply laptops to disadvantaged children without an open tender was founded by a Tory donor. Computacenter Ltd was chosen by the Department for Education to deliver 230,000 laptops to vulnerable pupils after the Covid school lockdowns. Private Eye revealed this week that the firm’s founder, […]