Schools: Coronavirus

(asked on 5th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to draw on international best practice, including the use of online teaching, for continuing the teaching of children of clinically extremely vulnerable parents without exposing their parents to the risk of catching covid-19.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 13th November 2020

Schools continue to remain open for all children and young people, as they have since the start of the autumn term. Being at school is vital for children’s education and for their wellbeing. It continues to be the aim of the Department that all pupils, in all year groups, remain in school full-time.

The risk to children themselves of becoming severely ill from COVID-19 is very low, and there are negative health impacts of being out of school. For most children, the benefits of being back in the classroom far outweigh the low risk of COVID-19, and schools can take action to further reduce risks.

The Department published actions for schools during the COVID-19 outbreak to support them to welcome back all children from the start of the autumn term. The full guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.

Schools should continue to undertake risk assessments and implement the system of controls set out in this guidance. These measures provide a framework for school leaders to put in place proportionate protective measures for pupils and staff. If schools follow the guidance and maximise control measures, they can be confident they are managing risk effectively. The measures in place include schools minimising contact between individuals. This can be achieved through keeping groups separate and maintaining distance between individuals.

From 5 November 2020, following guidance on new national restrictions in schools, children who live with someone who is clinically extremely vulnerable, but who are not clinically extremely vulnerable themselves, should continue to attend education. The full guidance for schools and nurseries can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020#schools.

New guidance for shielding and protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19 was published on 4 November 2020. The guidance can be viewed here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/people-at-higher-risk/advice-for-people-at-high-risk/

Where a pupil is unable to attend school because they are complying with clinical advice or public health advice, schools are expected to immediately offer them access to remote education.

To support schools in meeting the remote education expectations, the Department announced a further remote education package of support, which can be found on the remote education service at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remote-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

Support includes an additional 340,000 laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children, and development resources for staff, including a good practice guide and school-led webinars.

The Department is also investing £1.5 million of additional funding to expand the EdTech Demonstrator programme, which provides peer-to-peer support for schools and colleges.

The Department is in regular contact with officials in British embassies overseas to collect the latest international intelligence and evidence about how other countries have approached distance learning for pupils.

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