coronavirus | Schools Week

38% rise in elective home education, and ‘stretched’ councils can’t keep track

The number of children withdrawn from school for elective home education has soared by 38 per cent in the past year, councils have reported. The Association of Directors of Children’s Services estimated that 75,668 pupils nationally are being electively home educated as of October 1, up from 54,656 at the same point last year. The […]

Faith schools waive church attendance requirements

Faith schools are amending requirements for prospective pupils to have attended places of worship in the wake of Covid-19 disruption. Last week, the Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA) approved a modification put forward by the governing body of Lowdham Church of England primary, in Nottinghamshire, to remove the need for pupils to have attended […]

DfE launches hiring spree for Covid response

A huge recruitment drive has been launched at the Department for Education to aid its response to Covid-19, with 100 jobs up for grabs. Job adverts for the 12-month contracts contain limited detail but state that people are being sought to work in “priority roles” that have been impacted by the pandemic and will be […]

DfE denies it withholds laptops on form-filling grounds

Headteachers claim they have had difficulty accessing laptops for self-isolating pupils because they didn’t fill in an optional attendance form. Schools have a legal duty to provide remote education to pupils who are forced to stay at home, and the government has promised additional laptops to assist. But accessing the laptops is proving an uphill […]

Teacher absence spike forces ‘tipping point’ closures

Schools are being forced to shut their doors as the numbers of teachers forced into isolation pushes them past the “tipping point”. A survey by Teacher Tapp has found the number of teachers reporting they are isolating due to Covid jumped to eight per cent this week – around double that reported before half-term. When […]

NTP reviews rule requiring pupils to receive online tutoring in school

The National Tutoring Programme is reviewing its stipulation that pupils need to be in school for online sessions following an outcry from headteachers. The NTP said it was working with “a number” of its tuition partners to ensure “necessary systems are in place to allow at home tuition to take place when needed”. The stipulation […]

Labour ‘got it wrong’ on scrapping Ofsted, says shadow schools minister

Ofsted plays an “important role” and Labour was “wrong” to pledge to scrap it without making clear it would be replaced with something better, the shadow schools minister has said. Wes Streeting told the Schools and Academies Show this morning that instead of calling for Ofsted’s demise, educationalists should tell Labour “how to make it […]

Covid-19: MATs should use resources to help ‘vulnerable’ schools recover, says Herrington

Multi-academy trusts should use their “considerable” capacity and resources to help vulnerable schools recover from Covid-19, the national schools commissioner has said. Dominic Herrington told the Schools and Academies Show today that relationships between trusts and schools had improved during the pandemic as leaders locally have pulled together to keep educating pupils, and that he […]

Government to ‘examine possibility’ of collecting data on bubbles and ventilation

The government could soon provide data on the use of bubbles and ventilation of school buildings and will run a new “outbreak investigation” study to check the role of schools in transmission of the virus. Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and UK Statistics Authority chief Professor Sir Ian Diamond have pledged to “examine the […]