coronavirus | Schools Week

School at heart of Covid surge ‘breaks vaccine record’

A school at the centre of Bolton’s fight against the Indian Covid variant estimates more than 10,000 people have now been vaccinated on its site. Essa Academy volunteered to become a vaccination centre after a surge in cases in the town, with the BL3 and BL4 postcodes particularly hard-hit. On Sunday, 3,072 people received their […]

DfE report: Schools in big MATs shun moves to share responsibility for excluded pupils

Schools in large multi-academy trusts have “refused to engage” in efforts to make them more responsible for excluded pupils in some parts of England, according to a government-commissioned report on alternative provision. New research for the Department for Education highlighted the need for “formal mechanisms” to deal with mainstream schools declining to work more closely […]

Revealed: The school Covid expenses the DfE rejected

Covid could leave a lasting “black hole” in school budgets, experts have warned as new figures lay bare the pandemic’s financial toll. Official figures show schools made thousands of pleas for Covid expenses at the invitation of the Department for Education – which then decided not to reimburse them. Requests included 250 claims totalling £475,691 […]

Oak Academy scrambles to secure future as privatisation plan pulled

Oak National Academy’s future set-up has still to be finalised just weeks before government funding runs out – after a privatisation plan, by which employees could have made millions, was pulled. A Schools Week investigation has established Oak management tabled a proposal whereby they would become majority shareholders of a “social purpose company” to run […]

DfE raids existing budgets for a third of £4.3bn Covid spending

Almost a third of the Department for Education’s extra Covid spending will be taken from existing budgets or underspends in other areas, according to a new report. Education unions said it reinforced their fears over the Treasury’s commitment to education recovery, and accused the government of “creative accounting”. The research, published by the Institute for […]

Urgent action demanded on home education after deaths of ‘invisible’ children

The government must pay “urgent attention” to safeguarding for pupils educated at home, an expert has warned, amid a probe into the deaths of three children. The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel revealed it had been notified of 15 incidents of “serious harm” involving home-educated children over the past year in England. Three children died, […]

Outbreak fears cause cautious schools to continue with mask rules

Mask rules for pupils will remain in place at some schools across England next week amid fears about localised outbreaks and a highly transmissible new variant of Covid. Several schools told Schools Week that they would continue to require masks in classrooms and communal areas even after the official government recommendation lifts on Monday. Prime […]

Covid outbreaks in schools double in a week

The number of Covid outbreaks in schools and other education settings doubled last week, new government data shows. Public Health England’s latest flu and Covid-19 report shows there were 48 new acute respiratory infection (ARI) “incidents” involving Covid reported by education settings in the week to May 9, up from 23 the week before and […]

School masks rule may be reintroduced in response to ‘localised outbreaks’, DfE says

Schools in areas facing “localised outbreaks” of Covid may be asked to reintroduce masks for pupils, the Department for Education has said. The government announced earlier this week that the recommendation that masks be worn in secondary classrooms and by pupils in secondary corridors will be lifted from Monday, in line with step three of […]