COVID-19 | Schools Week

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 […]

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 […]

Child infection rate rise began when schools reopened, but direct link ‘unproven’, says SAGE

Increases in infection levels among children and young adults began around the same time schools reopened, but a direct link between the two is “unproven and difficult to establish”, government scientists have said. A report endorsed by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, published today, found that although infection levels among young people started to […]

Rapid Covid tests a ‘game-changer’ for schools

Headteachers piloting rapid Covid-19 antigen tests under the government’s Operation Moonshot have described them as a “game-changer” to keep pupils in the classroom and help squash outbreaks. Sedgehill Academy in south east London, Poole Grammar School and South Wiltshire Grammar School in Salisbury have now done two rounds of testing using lateral flow tests, which […]

Private suppliers tout ‘rapid’ Covid tests to schools for £450 a box

Headteachers are being urged to check the legality of Covid tests from private suppliers after new “rapid” antigen tests started being offered on the open market, with one school quoted £450 for a box of 20. The Department of Health and Social Care said all tests bought from private companies must have a CE mark […]

SEND pupils told schools ‘can’t accommodate them’, claims Spielman

Schools have been telling parents they can’t accommodate pupils with special educational needs and disabilities during the coronavirus pandemic, Amanda Spielman has claimed. The chief inspector of schools told the National Children and Adult Services Conference this morning that children had been “left without access to therapy and education for months”. They’ve been told that […]