Educational Settings: Reopening Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Education
Rupa Huq
Main Page: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)Department Debates - View all Rupa Huq's debates with the Department for Education
Educational Settings: Reopening
Rupa Huq Excerpts(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Nick Gibb
I am delighted to join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to the teachers in Great Grimsby for the work that they are doing in keeping schools open for vulnerable children and children of critical workers, as well as all the other work that they do in continuing to teach children while they remain at home. We take the advice of SAGE, Public Health England and the CMO on how and when we can remove the restrictions on access to our schools. It was part of the national lockdown decisions, and we will take their advice when we make those decisions.
Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)
Can the Minister tell me, did the PM’s much trumpeted army of catch-up tutors from the first lockdown ever happen, or was it just Ealing that got left out? How will he fund, after a second year of disruption, not just the academic deficit but the emotional damage done, not just to pupils but to teachers? We expect them to be superhuman, with their own bereavements, bursting bubbles, kids and long covid, yet they have had no recognition in pay or vaccines, and child and adolescent mental health services had a two-year waiting list even before coronavirus.
Nick Gibb
The national citizenship programme is a big programme, which is overseen by the Education Endowment Foundation. There are 33 tutoring companies, 15,000 tutors are signed up and we intend to reach 250,000 of the most disadvantaged pupils. That is a very effective, evidence-based approach to helping catch-up. If there are particular circumstances that the hon. Lady wants to bring to my attention, I shall be delighted to have those details and I will take the matter up with the Education Endowment Foundation.