PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Children: Coronavirus (18 June 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that white working class children do not fall further behind in educational outcomes as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Asked by:
Sir John Hayes (Conservative)

As plans continue for a full return to education from September, we have announced a £1 billion COVID-19 ‘catch-up’ package to directly tackle the impact of lost teaching time.

£650 million will be shared across state primary and secondary schools over the 2020-21 academic year. This one-off grant to support pupils recognises that all young people have lost time in education as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, regardless of their income or background.

This package will make sure that every pupil, no matter their age or where they live, gets the education, opportunities and outcomes they deserve. Whilst school leaders will decide how it is used, the intention is that this money will be spent on the most effective interventions.

On 19 June, the Education Endowment Foundation published a guide to help school leaders and staff decide how to use this universal funding to best support their pupils, which is available here:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Publications/Covid-19_Resources/Covid-19_support_guide_for_schools.pdf.

In addition, a National Tutoring Programme, worth £350 million, will increase access to high-quality tuition for the most disadvantaged young people. This will help accelerate their academic progress and prevent the gap between them and their more affluent peers widening.

This £1 billion package is on top of the £14.4 billion three-year funding settlement announced last year, recognising the additional work schools will need to do to help students to catch up.

Answered by:
Vicky Ford (Conservative)
25 June 2020