coronavirus | Schools Week

Secondary schools can start testing pupils on-site before March 8, DfE confirms

Secondary schools and colleges will be allowed to start testing pupils on-site before March 8, the Department for Education has confirmed. Increasing numbers of leaders have been calling for clarity on the matter since the announcement earlier this week that secondary school pupils will be tested four times – the first three on-site – when […]

Lost learning study: Pupils in poorer-intake schools further behind in reading, and 4 other key findings

Pupils in schools with the poorest intakes are further behind in reading than their counterparts in schools with more affluent rolls, a study into lost learning caused by Covid-19 has found. The Department for Education has released the first report from a research project run by Renaissance Learning and the Education Policy Institute, which was […]

DfE pledges £302m ‘recovery premium’ for schools and £200m summer schools fund for secondaries

Schools will split a £302 million “recovery premium” to support catch-up and secondaries will get £200 million to run summer schools programmes under plans announced by the government today. Ministers have also pledged £200 million for the “expansion” of the National Tutoring Programme, extension of the 16 to 19 tuition fund and additional support for […]

School funding chiefs at education committee: 9 things we learned

Government school funding bosses were quizzed by MPs this morning about catch-up funding, the pupil premium and school spending. The Parliamentary education committee held a hearing with Department for Education director of strategic finance Tony Foot, director for qualifications, curriculum and extra-curricular Graham Archer and Education and Skills Funding Agency director of academies and maintained […]

March 8 school reopening guidance: 13 things we learned

The government has confirmed its school reopening plans, with all settings expected to reopen on March 8. Secondary schools will be given flexibility on how they manage testing in the first week back. The need for face coverings will also be extended to secondary school classrooms. Prime minister Boris Johnson confirmed the plans in Parliament […]

PM sets out March 8 school reopening plans

Boris Johnson has set out the government’s school reopening plans, confirming that all schools will reopen to all pupils on March 8. The prime minister said that “two weeks from today, pupils and students in all schools and further education settings can safely return to face-to-face teaching, supported by twice weekly testing of secondary schools […]

Health minister: ‘All schools’ to reopen on March 8

All schools will reopen to all pupils on March 8, a health minister has said, as Boris Johnson prepares to set out his “roadmap” out of the current lockdown. The prime minister is due to address the House of Commons this afternoon with further details of the government’s plan, with reports that he is planning […]

Why we shouldn’t rush to scrap GCSEs in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic

We need a debate about the future of education post-Covid-19, but that shouldn’t mean a rush to abolish things like GCSEs, writes Tim Oates. A lot has changed over the past year. The effect of Covid has been seismic for individuals, industries and countries around the globe. But there is now hope that mass vaccination […]

Primary-aged children had second highest Covid-19 rates in early February, REACT study finds

Primary school aged children had the second highest levels of Covid-19 infection in early February, according to the latest round of a randomised testing programme. Imperial College’s Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission, or “REACT” programme, has been tracking infection rates throughout the pandemic. The latest round of testing, carried out between February 4 and 13, […]