Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they have provided to schools for the development of online learning.

The government has made a wide range of resources available to support schools and colleges to provide high quality remote education and to meet the expectations we have set: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak#res.

The Get Help with Remote Education page on gov.uk provides a one stop shop for teachers and leaders, signposting the support package available: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-with-remote-education. This includes helping schools and colleges to access technology that supports remote education, as well as peer to peer training and guidance on how to use technology effectively. It also includes practical tools, a good practice guide and school-led webinars to support effective delivery of the curriculum. Information is available on issues such as safeguarding, statutory duties and expectations, supporting pupils and students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and recovery and catch up to stop pupils and students falling behind.

The government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. This includes over 870,000 laptops and tablets that were delivered to schools, trusts and local authorities by 25 January.

Support is also available for schools to get set up on Google or Microsoft platforms. These platforms bring together the school community, pool resources and give pupils the opportunity to work with their peers remotely. Since April, 2.4 million accounts have been set up.

The department has partnered with the UK’s leading mobile network operators, such as EE, Three, O2 and Vodafone, to provide free data to disadvantaged families, which will support access to education resources, including Oak National Academy, and other websites. Families will benefit from this additional data until July 2021. Schools will be able to request free mobile data uplifts via the Get Help with Technology service.

We have also already provided over 54,000 4G wireless routers, with free data for the academic year, and continue to provide 4G wireless routers where children need to access remote education.

In addition, we have invested £1.5 million of additional funding to expand the EdTech Demonstrator programme, which supports schools and colleges to use technology to strengthen remote education arrangements and secure a longer-term strategy. The expansion will ensure that up to 4,000 schools and colleges will receive bespoke advice and training by the end of March.

Finally, the department has made £4.84 million available for Oak National Academy both for the summer term of the academic year 2019-20, and then for the 2020-21 academic year, to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception up to Year 11. Specialist content for pupils with SEND is also available.