Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gavin Williamson and Chris Skidmore

Monday 7th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[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.

[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.

[Chris Skidmore]

My local authority, South Gloucestershire Council, was the first in the country to implement a recovery curriculum to support schools, working with experts from a range of fields and taking in international examples to get children back into the classroom. Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating South Gloucestershire Council and all the teachers on their hard work to provide vital support for local pupils, and encourage his Department and other local authorities to consider this model as potential best practice?

[Gavin Williamson]

I very much join my right hon. Friend in congratulating South Gloucestershire Council on the work that it has been doing and rolling out across schools in its area. I would be delighted to look at that work and maybe to meet my right hon. Friend and colleagues from South Gloucestershire Council to understand some of the work that has been undertaken and what we can use from that to roll out in different parts of the country.