Pre-exam years back to meet teachers in secondary school

Some secondary pupils in England have gone back to school - seeing their teachers face-to-face for the first time since the lockdown began in March. But only 25% of pupils in Years 10 and 12 can be in school at any one time. Many will only have a few hours of teaching each week - and not all schools are taking back more pupils. The Department for Education, in updated guidance on Monday, says pupils in other years could return to school for a one-off meeting with teachers. "I want to make sure as many pupils as possible can get back into the classroom and be reunited with their friends and teachers before the summer," said Education Secretary Gavin Williamson. As well as the return of some secondary classes, and pupils in Reception, Years 1 and 6, schools have also been told they can provide a "check-in" meeting for other year groups, before the end of term. The return of the two secondary school year groups, taking their GCSEs and A-levels next summer, is not a return to full-time classes. Many pupils, who have been studying online at home, will be returning for a limited number of hours each week, or for catch-up meetings with teachers. Important to get back, say pupils Macy, a Year 10 pupil in Hartlepool, said that school would be very different from usual - but wanted to catch up as she worried she had "dropped behind". "We won't be in school for as long - and we'll be in bubbles, which is a group of six people. And there are measures put in place - like a one-way system, so it prevents people crossing in corridors," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. But she was keen to get back after being "stuck in the house and and not seeing friends face-to-face". "You lose your focus and your motivation to do anything," she said. "It's important to get back as soon as we can."

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Gulliver in Tameside, Greater Manchester, said his school would not open until next week - and said there was a lack of information about what would happen next. Another Year 10 pupil in Hartlepool, Isaac, said his school had been in touch about the safety measures - and he said it was "really important" that young people could go back. He said they would benefit from having "routines in place - and we feel like we're finally getting back to normal and feel like we're making progress". Pupils have been studying at home, but they reported different levels of online teaching being made available. Digital deprivation A proposal signed by four former education secretaries, a former head of Ofsted and the Chairman of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon, as well as former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is calling for funding for online access to disadvantaged families. Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh is to present a Bill on the issue in Parliament. She said: "This policy isn't a silver bullet and can't replace months of missed education. But it would make an immediate, tangible difference to families right across our country." It is estimated that at least 700,000 disadvantaged children lack access to computers or internet, which are crucial for them to continue their education remotely. Ministers have already set up a scheme to lend 330,000 laptops to England's poorest children, those on the pupil premium, but thus far only 100,000 devices have been distributed to local authorities and academy trusts. A government spokesman said: "The government has already committed £100m to support children to learn at home and pupil premium funding at the highest ever rate continues to be paid to help schools support their disadvantaged pupils." Catch-up plans Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is also due to set out the details of his summer catch-up plans in the coming days. It comes after he scrapped plans for primary schools to bring all pupils back for a month before the summer break. In Monday's updated guidance, the Department for Education confirmed again that if schools had enough space they had the "flexibility" to bring back more pupils. In Scotland, Education Secretary John Swinney has suggested that next year's exams could take place later than usual. If exams were pushed back it would give schools more time to catch up on missed lessons and allow courses to be completed.

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Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said secondary schools in England were working hard to bring students safely back. But he called for a detailed and coherent plan to be agreed as soon as possible for how schools would reopen in the autumn. If social distancing is still in place there will be pressures on school capacity and staffing for any extra classrooms. Liberal Democrat education spokesman Layla Moran has written to the PM and education secretary, calling for a recruitment campaign. She is also calling for local safe space registers to be drawn up to allow schools to use buildings and community spaces that are vacant nearby. And local councils are urging ministers to work with them to find local solutions. Mr Whiteman, however, said relying on finding empty buildings was unlikely to be workable. "Based on government guidelines, we would need roughly double the number of classrooms available. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of spaces," he said.