VILLAGE hall schools and summer lessons are among the ideas being suggested to save a generation of children missing out on lessons. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson yesterday admitted the plan for all primary school kids to return for a month before the summer holidays has been officially ditched. Children have started to go back to school […]
VILLAGE hall schools and summer lessons are among the ideas being suggested to save a generation of children missing out on lessons.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson yesterday admitted the plan for all primary school kids to return for a month before the summer holidays has been officially ditched.
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Children have started to go back to school across the world following the coronavirus outbreak, but Britain’s cautious approach is seeing most still learning from home.
Just one in four children returned to classrooms last week, and Mr Williamson has only been able to say he hopes there will be more.
Mr Williamson told MPs yesterday he hopes all kids will return to class in September, but fell short of promising to.
He said: “While we are not able to welcome all primary children back for a full month before the summer, we continue to work with the sector on the next steps.
“We would like to see schools who have the capacity to bring back more children in those smaller class sizes, to do so if they are able to do before the summer holidays. We will be working to bring all children back to school in September.”
But he stressed that the R rate was below one across the country, and he expected more kids to come back in, in the following weeks.
The Government has accepted that schools won’t have the room to get everyone back in and will show “flexibility” to heads to be able to act how they feel is best.
With Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield accusing ministers of “furloughing childhood“, The Sun looked at the options to get kids back in school.
One option would be putting lessons in much bigger rooms so pupils can stay more than two metres apart.
Former chief inspector of schools Sir Michael Wilshaw is among those urging on lessons needing more space.
Sir Michael said: “If you’re going to insist on social distancing and a maximum of 15 in a class we will need double the amount of space, we will need double the amount of teachers and we’ve got to make sure we have that.”
This could see the Nightingale Hospitals that were set up across the UK to deal with a surge finally given a use.
Yesterday, Reverend Steve Chalke, founder of the Oasis chain of academy schools suggested using other buildings.
He said: “In any community there are other buildings that can be used – community halls, churches and other faith groups’ buildings, hotels.
“We’ve explored conversations with some people like that so you can bring children back in and use those buildings because their emotional and social development is so important.”
Another would be slashing the Government’s two-metre social distancing rules.
SAGE adviser Shaun Fitzgerald of Cambridge University, who helped draw up the rule, claimed more focus was needed on how people are together, not the distance.
He said: “The thing which is missing from a simple two-metre rule is consideration of other factors, such as time, duration and orientation.
“It’s all three that are important. I would not want to be 1 meter apart from somebody for an extended period because that’s much, much higher risk than two metres.
“But being less than two metres for a short period and I’m not facing that person are ameliorating factors. If things evolve, it isn’t necessarily because the evidence is any different.”
The PM suggested today that the UK’s two metre rule could be lowered if the number of cases of coronavirus drops.
Chair of the Commons Education Committee and Conservative MP Robert Halfon said summer camps rather than enforced time in classrooms is the current favoured plan to stop students falling behind in their education.
Mr Halfon said summer camps, rather than formal summer schooling is the more likely option to help children who would otherwise fall behind.
He told The Sun: “The most likely thing is summer school or mentoring and a catch up premium – it would be like a school camp run by volunteers.”
Mr Halfon said the catch up premium could work to get more cash to charities – such as Teach First – who could use it help bolster programs for children.
He added: “(There could be) a catch up premium that is specifically designated for those disadvantaged pupils who haven’t been learning, to give funding to existing education charities around the country to help them scale up tutoring for those people.”
Schools could also follow in the footsteps of the privately educated and supply teachers with face screens and other PPE equipment.
Ministers have previously rejected a similar plan, and the idea is expensive.
Former Education Secretary Justine Greening called for a national plan, rather than saying all kids would go back and doing a U-turn.
She said: “We’ve had a national effort on both the NHS and protecting jobs and we now need the same national effort on schools,
“I think many people will be very surprised that there isn’t yet a government plan in place to help our schools get back open and there’s also not a government plan in place to help children that have been most affected by the schools shutdown to be able to catch up.
“And the big risk for Boris Johnson’s government now is that unless they bring forward a proper joined-up strategy, then it won’t be a government that delivers levelling up in Britain, it will end up being a government that levels down and nobody wants to see that.’”
