COVID-19 | Schools Week

Covid ‘outbreak management plans’: What DfE wants schools to do

The Department for Education has published an updated Covid-19 contingency framework for schools, setting out what measures may be needed in response to local outbreaks. Here’s what you need to know. 1. Have an ‘outbreak management plan’ (and DfE hands power back to councils) The guidance states schools should have “outbreak management plans”, outlining […]

Number 10 seeks education deputy director for new delivery unit

Number 10 is seeking a “deputy director for education, jobs and skills” to work in a new unit set up to drive policy implementation. According to a job advert, the new £71,000 to £117,800-a-year role will be based in the Number 10 Delivery Unit, a new team within the Cabinet Office that “should grow to […]

Covid: Masks still in place and onsite testing returns in ‘Delta’ hotspot schools

Headteachers in “Delta” Covid variant hotspots are “praying” the virus does not rip through their schools again in the coming weeks, with one having to send seven in ten pupils home last half term. Mask rules remain in place in many north-west schools, while some have resumed in-school testing and have hosted temporary vaccine centres. […]

Bring back face coverings in secondary schools and vaccinate pupils on site, say unions

Face coverings should be reintroduced in secondary school classrooms and for students in communal areas, unions representing teachers and support staff have said, amid growing fears about the impact of the Delta variant of Covid-19. The National Education Union, along with support staff unions Unison, the GMB and Unite, have also said pupils should be […]

Covid-19: Almost 1 in 3 Bolton secondary pupils absent as Delta variant surges

Attendance data has revealed the scale of Covid-19 disruption to schools in some parts of England, with almost one in three secondary pupils in Bolton absent because of the virus in the last week of term. Data from attendance surveys published by the Department for Education shows 31.5 per cent of secondary pupils and 21.3 […]

School Covid outbreaks near six-month high as Indian variant spreads

Covid outbreaks in schools have reached their highest level since December as the Indian variant continues to spread, official figures show. School leaders called new data on the spread of the Delta variant first discovered in India “concerning”, and said it raised “serious questions” over the decision to drop face covering requirements in schools last […]

Sir Kevan Collins resigns as government education recovery tsar

The government’s education recovery commissioner Sir Kevan Collins has offered his resignation after ministers allocated just £1.4 billion in funding for the next phase of their catch-up plan, it has been reported. In his resignation letter to prime minister Boris Johnson, published by Tes, Collins warned he did not believe it was “credible that a […]

Free school meals voucher extension risked legal challenges

The government’s last-minute U-turn on providing free school meals vouchers over the summer holidays risked exposing it to legal challenges that would have a “medium to high” chance of success, internal documents reveal. However, Department for Education officials said that as the £191 million contract extension for Edenred – awarded without a tender – was […]

Unions demand ‘immediate’ release of Covid-19 variant school outbreaks data

Unions representing heads, teachers and support staff have demanded the “immediate” release of data on the number of Covid-19 variant cases linked to schools and colleges. A joint letter from the NAHT, ASCL, NEU, NASUWT, Unison, Unite and the GMB also calls on education secretary Gavin Williamson to come clean over when ministers were first […]