Govt must guarantee schools’ funding boost isn’t at expense of anything else

Responding to news that the Government has announced plans, including a tutoring scheme, to help pupils catch up on lost learning as a result of school closures during the COVID-19 crisis, Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Layla Moran said:

These initiatives need to form part of a wider national plan agreed with teachers, experts, unions and others. The plan must be flexible and work for school leaders’ circumstances on the ground. Top-down initiatives with funding tied to them won’t make a big enough difference if schools are unable to fully reopen safely.

Ministers must also guarantee that this is additional funding, and will not come at the expense of money for anything else. I very much hope the tutoring scheme will draw on the abilities and experience of existing supply teachers and recently retired teachers. They can deliver top tutoring at the scale we need through a Teach for Britain recruitment campaign.

In addition, these measures need to come alongside more efforts to eliminate hunger amongst children, including an emergency uplift to child benefit during this crisis and the introduction of a catch-up premium for the most disadvantaged pupils.

The Liberal Democrats have a five-point plan for reopening schools to more pupils in England.

1. Increase capacity for physical learning. Combine local spare space registers, where local councils and school leaders can cooperate on using suitable empty buildings in the community as learning spaces.
2. Recruit an army of extra teachers to cope with demand. Launch a Teach for Britain recruitment campaign to bring out-of-work supply teachers and recently-retired teachers into schools so more pupils can return. Build on the success of the Social Work Together campaign, developed with the Local Government Association. Work with unions to try and get more teachers into learning spaces in any one school day.
3. End the online learning void for thousands of children. Develop a bold strategy to leave no child behind by partnering with the private sector to get laptops and internet access to any disadvantaged child currently unable to learn online. Recognise that the current target of 230,000 leaves too many children behind, and that councils are neither receiving the equipment they have asked for, nor seeing high uptake rates for the kit they’re given. Begin major advertising campaign to encourage families and children to ask for equipment. Back this up by working to get more physical resources including textbooks to children lacking internet/computer access.
4. Consider designing a flexible, phased reopening that follows the science and has the trust of parents and the profession by being developed with them, following the lead of Kirsty Williams in Wales. Consider extending the summer term by one week, and stagger pupils’ attendance in school, so that at most a third of pupils are normally present at any one time. Begin the next academic year on time in September, but double the autumn half-term break to two weeks. We must recognise that many schools are doing a fantastic job at phased reopening, and ensure local authorities, academy trusts and government are learning from their successes.
5. Halt the widening of the disadvantage gap. Extend the free school meals over the summer holidays, but recognise the scheme is flawed and excludes many families and so combine it with an emergency uplift in child benefit of £150 per child per month, with £100 for every subsequent child, during this crisis. Implement a ‘catch-up premium’ of £700 per disadvantaged child, to enable schools and charities give them a much-needed boost in the next academic year. Also create a Summer Learning Fund so that councils can run summer learning camps for children, focused on local authorities in the most deprived areas. This will prepare children for September and give many children a positive environment in which to learn and re-acclimatise to an educational environment. Fully fund places for children on free school meals.
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