Policy Watch

Education remains at the forefront to the national news, be it calls for teacher vaccinations or the storm around food parcels to those on free school meals. 

On Monday the Prime Minister delivered a national address which introduced a third lockdown, closing schools across England (to all but key worker and vulnerable children) and cancelling A levels and GCSEs in the summer. 

Rising coronavirus cases drove headlines in the education this week. Calls for England to follow Wales in moving classes online before the Christmas holidays led to the Department for Education threatening legal action against Greenwich Borough Council. This after the council wrote to head teachers asking to move teaching online. To counter the rising rates of coronavirus in schools the Government has announced that from January, every secondary school and college in England will have access to rapid coronavirus tests following a pilot.

The spectre of 2021 exams is never far away and once again they hit the headlines as Scottish Education Secretary John Swinney announced the cancellation of Highers and Advanced Highers exams. They will be replaced by teacher assessment. A decision had been expected in February, but pressure had been building for an earlier announcement. Secondary schools in Wales have gone online for the final week before the holidays in an attempt to suppress the COVID cases. And in parts of South East England secondary pupils will be tested as case numbers rise.

Gavin Williamson made his long-awaited announcement of the arrangements for exams in England in summer 2021. In an interview on Radio 4’s Today programme, he was unequivocal in his message that exams would take place. To support students and to make exams as fair as possible, a package of exceptional measures has been announced. Although welcomed by many, there are those who questioning whether it goes far enough in addressing lost teaching and learning.