COVID-19 | Schools Week

Mandatory school attendance will ‘pit heads against parents’

The decision to reintroduce school attendance enforcement will “pit heads against parents” and risks costly legal action from families that include shielding members, it has been warned. All schools are due to reopen next week. The government has said attendance will be mandatory for primary pupils from Monday and for secondary pupils from the following […]

Data reveals scale of National Tutoring Programme’s northern challenge

New data has revealed big variations in take-up of the government’s National Tutoring Programme across England, with schools in the south far more likely to have enrolled their pupils than those in the north. Figures provided by the NTP show the scheme has reached 100 per cent of its target number of schools in the […]

Williamson pledges to back teachers ‘all the way’ on exam grading

The education secretary has pledged to back teachers “all the way” in their efforts to award exam grades this summer, and accepted he will share the responsibility if there is a backlash on results days. In an exclusive interview with Schools Week this week, Gavin Williamson said the government was putting its “confidence and faith […]

Just 0.14% of secondary school Covid tests are positive, but concerns over accuracy

Around 3,000 positive Covid test results have been recorded by secondary schools since the beginning of the year, with pupils slightly more likely to test positive than staff. NHS Test and Trace statistics show that just 0.14 per cent of all lateral flow tests (LFTs) results reported by secondary schools so far this term have […]

Narrowing attainment gap stopped being ‘main focus’ of DfE in 2015, says former permanent secretary

Efforts to narrow the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their better-off peers ceased to be a “main focus” for the Department for Education in 2015, its former top civil servant has claimed. Jonathan Slater, who served as permanent secretary at the DfE from 2016 until last year, said until the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the […]

Budget 2021 a ‘missed opportunity’ with no extra funding for schools

This year’s budget has been described as a “missed opportunity” for education after it failed to provide additional cash for schools. Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s budget focused on measures to help the country recover economically from the pandemic, extending the furlough scheme until September and raising incentives to hire apprentices. But there was no extra funding […]

Data reveals huge variation in spring term school attendance across England

Attendance in schools has varied hugely across England this term, new data shows, with rates in the week before half term up to eight times higher in some parts of the country than in others. Analysis by Schools Week of government data on attendance by local authority area shows secondary attendance on February 11 ranged […]

School attendance rises to over 18% after half term

School attendance rose to over 18 per cent in the week after half term, with an increase in secondary attendance for the first time in over a month. The latest attendance data published by the Department for Education shows attendance on February 25 was at 18.3 per cent, up from 15.9 per cent on February […]

Don’t hand out Covid testing kits to pupils’ families, DfE tells schools

Schools should not distribute Covid testing kits to members of their pupils’ households, the Department for Education has said, following the announcement that families will now also qualify for free twice-weekly tests. On Sunday, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced that households with children of school-age will get free equipment to test […]