An extended catch-up plan for England’s schools in the Summer and beyond is to be launched, in order to help students get back on track with their learning amid the nation’s schools being shut
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister has said that the plans to enact catch-up opportunities would involve all students, not just those from poorer backgrounds who are expected to fare worse as a result of school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It comes after the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has decided to scrap plans for all primary pupils to return to the classroom before the summer break.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been accused of “flailing around” over the reopening of schools in the United Kingdom.
On Wednesday, leader of the Labour party, Sir Keir Starmer, called for a national recovery plan to be enacted for schools, he said that the current plan to get pupils back into classrooms were “lying in tatters”.
The Prime Minister said during Wednesday’s daily coronavirus press briefing that the UK government will be doing “a huge amount of catch up for pupils over the summer”.
Concerns are being raised about the potential for an entire generation whose learning has been negatively affected, as the education of many will have been interrupted for at least six months, and that is even if schools return in September as now planned.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister has said that the aim still remains to have all students return to school for the beginning of the academic year, but Mr Johnson gave no details about how his ministers intended to achieve this goal.
School capacity is severely restricted due to the current social distancing guidelines and the separating of existing classes, from much larger class sizes, into smaller groups of up to 15 pupils.
When the spokesperson was asked about the increasing of capacity, by creating additional classrooms or using communal spaces, such as village halls, for example, he went on to say that the government is currently “looking at exactly what might be required to get all children back”.
This comes after more students in the UK are starting to think that they are not getting good value for money from their time at university, an annual survey suggests.
The Scottish Government, who are bringing pupils back in a staggered manner starting in August, have said that it will be working alongside local councils in order to utilise spare community spaces in the country, as well as empty offices to use to accommodate students, where necessary.
Education spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats, Layla Moran, has called for a list to be drawn up in local areas of the UK to map out where additional communal spaces could be utilised by schools to accommodate students for these new catch-up plans.
There are few details of how these new summer catch-up plans will work, but a further announcement is expected to be released next week. Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, warned last week that there were only two weeks left to set the plans for such summer learning catch-up projects up.
