Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

My hon. Friend tempts me into a discussion that I probably have to have first with the Chancellor, but he is absolutely right to highlight the important role that early action and early support plays in children’s lives. That is why I was delighted to see that we will take action to invest in the Nuffield early language interventions, which have already shown that they can deliver so much for youngsters. Building on that into the future is an important part of the work that the Department is doing with our schools and so much more.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to help children and young people catch up on the education they missed during the previous school year as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

[Chris Skidmore (Kingswood) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to help children and young people catch up on the education they missed during the previous school year as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Gavin Williamson)]

The Government have announced a catch-up package worth £1 billion, including a catch-up premium worth a total of £650 million, to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. That is in addition to the national tutoring programme, which is targeted at those children who are most disadvantaged in all our constituencies.

[Andrew Jones]

I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. There has been huge variation in the amount of school missed, often caused by the amount of online learning available and the capacity to access it. The amount of catch-up needed is therefore individual and diverse, and that is challenging for both families and teachers. How is my right hon. Friend supporting schools in their assessment of individual need and their response to it?

[Gavin Williamson]

I very much point to the work of the Education Endowment Foundation, which we issued with our guidance. It has undertaken evidence-based work to ensure that, while schools will make the assessment of the individual needs of children and what help and intervention can be put in place for them, there is clear guidance on what works in the classroom environment. That might mean extending the school day for some; it might mean Saturday classes for others. There are so many different interventions that can deliver significant results in terms of helping youngsters catch up on the learning they have lost.