Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of (a) extending the school day and (b) shortening the summer holiday as part of wider reforms to education in England.

The Government recognises that COVID-19 and associated education restrictions have had an impact on children and young people’s education.

In February 2021, the Department appointed Sir Kevan Collins as Education Recovery Commissioner to advise how to help pupils make up their lost education over the course of this Parliament.

As an immediate step, we have invested a further £700 million to support education recovery measures (bringing total investment in catch up to over £1.7 billion), including for tutoring, summer schools in 2021 and additional support for schools.

The Education Recovery Commissioner will engage with parents, pupils and teachers in the development of this broader approach which will examine a range of options to help schools use evidence-based interventions to support their pupils to make up lost learning. We will share further details in due course.