coronavirus | Schools Week

NAHT: 4 in 5 schools have pupils isolating because of lack of tests

Headteachers have reported that pupils at more than four in five schools are isolating because they can’t get access to a Covid test. A survey of 736 school leaders by the leadership union NAHT found that 82 per cent of schools have children currently not attending because they cannot access a test to rule out […]

Anger as government admits test and trace website coding error

A coding glitch caused by the government’s “failure” to carry out proper software testing is preventing people from booking Covid tests. There have been widespread reports of people – including school staff and pupils – not being able to book tests via the government’s website, despite claims that local centres still have appointments available. In […]

Not enough Covid testing capacity, admits Johnson

The government does not have enough testing capacity to keep up with current demand, the prime minister admitted. Boris Johnson told the Parliamentary liaison committee that demand for tests had “massively accelerated” in recent weeks. Schools Week revealed last week how schools had been forced to break into their limited supplies of emergency home testing […]

Williamson’s education committee exams hearing: 5 things we learned

The education secretary faced questions about this year’s exams fiasco and the reopening of schools when he appeared in front of the Parliamentary education committee this morning. Gavin Williamson’s appearance in front of MPs follows a hearing last week with leaders from exams regulator Ofqual. Here’s what we learned from him. 1. DfE looking […]

Attendance: 8% of schools not ‘fully open’ last week, says DfE

Around 92 per cent of state-funded schools were “fully open” as of last Thursday, the Department for Education has said. Analysis of attendance figures by the DfE shows that although almost all state schools (99.1 per cent) were open on September 10, around 8 per cent were not “fully open” – meaning they did not […]

It’s official: DfE doesn’t know how many schools have covid cases

The Department for Education does not hold information on the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in schools, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. The return to school has been disrupted with reports hundreds of schools have sent children home after suspected covid-19 cases, or a struggle to get those with symptoms tested. An […]

Williamson: Covid is an ‘opportunity’ to drive education reforms

Innovations in education seen during the coronavirus pandemic such as blended learning should have a “lasting impact” beyond the next two years, the education secretary has said. Gavin Williamson told a webinar organised by the Foundation for Education Development this morning that the pandemic had presented an “opportunity to make the changes that need to […]

Exam board ‘proposed algorithm – then raised concerns about it’

An exam board which revealed that it warned ministers of flaws with the ill-fated algorithm had actually proposed the approach adopted by the regulator in the first place. Cambridge Assessment, which runs exam board OCR, had originally submitted the direct centre performance (DCP) model that was chosen and then developed by Ofqual as its algorithm […]

Ofqual cancels £80k media recovery plan

Ofqual has abandoned plans to spend £80,000 on media strategists to lead its “recovery plan” following the exams fiasco. The exams regulator had run a tender to recruit a “senior press office service to provide media advice and strategy”. The contract for the 15-week project, worth up to £80,000, was due to start this week. […]