COVID-19 | Schools Week

Government doing ‘level best’ to get school pupils tested, claims Johnson

The prime minister dodged questions about a lack of Covid testing available for school pupils in the House of Commons, claiming the government is doing its “level best” to test every child with symptoms. Boris Johnson was grilled on problems with access to testing for school pupils by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. Statistics released […]

Schools to stay open as Johnson announces tougher lockdown restrictions

Schools, colleges and universities “will stay open”, despite a ramping up of lockdown restrictions in England, Boris Johnson has said. Announcing a plethora of tougher measures including an enforced 10pm closing time for pubs and a plea for workers to once again work from home if they can, Johnson said the country had reached a […]

Proportion of schools not fully open due to Covid quadruples in a week

The proportion of schools reporting that they are not fully open because of suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19 has quadrupled in a week. Attendance data from the Department for Education showed that 4 per cent of schools reported they were not fully open because of Covid as of last Thursday, up from 1 per […]

Starmer demands taskforce to close attainment gap

A national taskforce run by an independent body like the children’s commissioner should be set up to plan a national strategy to close the attainment gap, Sir Keir Starmer has said. The Labour leader told the party’s “Connected” online conference this morning that the country needs “a national strategy with clear targets to close the […]

Heads’ anxiety peaked before lockdown and school reopenings, finds UCL study

Anxiety among headteachers peaked after partial school closures and phased reopenings were announced, but teachers’ wellbeing stayed “largely the same” during lockdown, according to a new study. Analysis of survey data collected by Teacher Tapp by UCL and paid-for by the Nuffield Foundation found that 38 per cent of heads reported “very high” work-related anxiety […]

Teachers fifth on priority list for testing, but no place for school pupils

Teachers with Covid-19 symptoms will be fifth on the government’s priority list for testing, it has been announced. But school pupils do not feature anywhere on the list, despite a pledge by ministers that they too would be given priority. We are continuing to improve the testing system to ensure teaching staff can get priority […]

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 […]

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 […]