The school leaders’ union has dismissed plans to lengthen the school day to help children catch up after the unprecedented disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic as “superficially attractive” but unhelpful.
Officials at the Department for Education (DfE) are considering various proposals to help children try to recover lost learning time caused by school closures, according to the Daily Telegraph.
It reports that DfE officials are examining the possibility of adding extra classes at the start and end of the school day. This could include charities and volunteers running out-of-hours classes and extracurricular activities, meaning teachers may not be required to stay late.
Robert Halfon, the chairman of the education select committee, told the paper: “They are definitely considering all these ideas. I think they are receptive and thinking about it seriously.”
The general secretary of the NAHT union, Paul Whiteman, said: “Research evidence shows that there are better methods to help pupils than lengthening the school day. The government must filter out loud calls for superficially attractive schemes and listen to the experts instead.”
The NAHT said providing pupils with greater feedback by investing in more teachers and enabling greater opportunities for one-to-one and small group learning would be more effective in helping children to catch up. It said pupils’ progress could also be accelerated by improving teachers’ knowledge and skills.
The DfE did not comment on the proposals, but a government spokesperson said: “We will invest a further £300m in tutoring programmes, building on the existing £1bn Covid Catch-Up Fund, but the prime minister has been clear that extended schools closures have had a huge impact on pupils’ education, which will take more than a year to make up.
“The government will work with parents, teachers and schools to develop a long-term plan to make sure pupils have the chance to make up their lost education over the course of this parliament, and we have just appointed Sir Kevan Collins to the role of education recovery commissioner to specifically oversee this issue.”
The children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, told BBC Breakfast: “What we all realise now is the impact on children of not being in school, both educationally and in terms of their wellbeing, is absolutely immense, and one that we hadn’t really anticipated in the first instance – but now, a year on, is very clear to see.
“The pressure now on getting that catch-up in place, getting children to the point where they can start to get their confidence back and rebuild, really needs to start in huge earnest.
“Which is why I’m really pushing for not only a kind of one-year catch-up, but something that will go over the next two to three years to try to get children, as many as possible, not only back to where they should have been, but also ahead.”
School closures in England have been extended until at least 8 March. The devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland have announced that some primary schools year groups will return by 22 February.
The education minister, Kirsty Williams, said on Friday that the fall in Covid cases since December meant there was “sufficient headroom for us to bring back some of our learners in a phased, flexible and progressive way”.