Skip to content
21 April 2026

Tag: COVID-19

Schools wait for £50m in Covid costs

The government is yet to pay out a third of the cash requested to deal with the costs associated with keeping schools safe during the coronavirus pandemic, despite already settling 95 per cent of claims. Almost £50 million claimed by schools has still not been paid out of the exceptional costs fund. The criteria for […]

Face coverings mandatory in communal areas of all secondary schools

The wearing of face coverings will become mandatory in communal areas of all secondary schools from Monday. Following the announcement of the government’s decision to hold another month-long lockdown from this Thursday, the Department for Education has published updated guidance for schools. Until now, face coverings in communal areas have only been mandatory in some […]

Fewer than 1 in 5 teachers support calls for full school lockdowns

Fewer than one in five teachers want schools to close, but over two in five think rotas should be enacted, a new poll has found. A survey of over 8,000 school staff by Teacher Tapp found that just 17 per cent wanted schools to close to all except the children of keyworkers and vulnerable pupils […]

Schools to remain open during second national lockdown, PM confirms

Schools in England will remain open during the month-long national lockdown due to begin on Thursday, Boris Johnson has confirmed. The second national lockdown announced by the prime minister today will see pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops shut and socialising between households banned indoors in all parts of England from 12.01am on Thursday. But schools, […]

What new Datalab analysis tells us about Covid and school attendance

Pupils in the some of the poorest areas of the country are missing out on schooling the most, according to new analysis. FFT Education Datalab’s work follows research by the Education Policy Institute this week which prompted concerns that pupils in some parts of the country are more likely to be left behind. Here, we […]

Year 7 pupils ’22 months behind expectations’, finds writing study

New year 7 pupils are 22 months behind where they should be, an online assessment provider has said after testing the writing skills of over 112,000 children. But it is not clear whether the fall in attainment is as a result of “disruption due to COVID-19 alone”. No More Marking, a company that produces comparative […]

Coronavirus: Attendance rates vary hugely across England, finds EPI report

School attendance rates vary hugely across England, new research has found, prompting concerns that pupils in some parts of the country are more likely to be left behind. Analysis by the Education Policy Institute found that secondary school attendance rates in October ranged from 61 per cent in Knowsley in the north west to 94 […]

No evidence for minister’s claim parents ‘prefer to pay’ for school dinners

A government minister stands accused of misleading the public after he falsely claimed that research showed parents “actually prefer to pay a modest sum” of “£1 or £2”, instead of receiving free school meals. It is pretty desperate to see ministers making misleading claims in order to justify voting against feeding hungry children in a […]