Jan
7
Support for young people
Author: Chloe Smith, Updated: 07 January 2021 13:12
Yesterday the Education Secretary set out the steps the Government are taking to support young people throughout the duration of the new national restrictions, ensuring that every child will have access to a high-quality remote education for the weeks ahead.
The closure of schools is unfortunately now necessary to keep the new variant of the virus under control – but the Government is committed to giving every child access to a high-quality remote education until they are allowed to re-open.
That is why, for the period of national lockdown, strengthened remote education expectations will be put in place, and will be enforced by Ofsted, with schools expected to provide a set number of hours of high-quality remote education for pupils. This will be supported by the delivery of one million laptops and tablets for the most disadvantaged children – with over 560,000 devices already delivered, and a further 100,000 being dispatched this week.
And with GCSEs and A Levels no longer able to go ahead as planned, the Education Secretary has set out that this year we will be trusting teachers, not algorithms to ensure every young person gets a fair grade for their work. Teacher assessment will be used to determine the grades, with Ofqual consulting next week on the details of how to provide guidance and training to make the process consistent.
I know that local teachers, the county council, and the government have been working incredibly hard and making every effort to keep schools open, because we all believe that education should be the utmost priority, but, under the severe pressure which the Prime Minister explained, they have now had to take the difficult decision to close school premises to most pupils. In my view schools should continue to be a top priority, and I will work with all concerned to help them re-open as soon as possible.
Chloe Smith