A full-time return to education
The government has released its plan for the full-time reopening of schools in September.
The current class-size restrictions will be lifted to allow schools to fully reopen to all children and young people. To reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission, schools are required to keep children in class or year group-sized ‘bubbles’. This is alongside protective measures such as regular cleaning and handwashing.
So does this mark an end to home-schooling? Not necessarily. With local lockdowns a real possibility, as we have seen in Leicester, plus the possibility of pupils self isolating if there is a school outbreak, the DfE has said that schools will be expected to have plans in place to offer remote education.
I’m delighted to have a new expert panel in this issue discussing remote learning, made up of the DfE’s Rachel Hope, Julia Adamson from BCS – the Chartered Institute of IT, Edd Grinham from Exa Networks, and Richard Slade from Plumcroft Primary School. They discuss how we can learn from the school closures to ensure that remote learning is fit-for-purpose in the future. This includes looking at how to tackle the lack of access to digital technology in some households, and how to keep pupils engaged and motivated from a distance. Read the feature on page 30.
Angela Pisanu, editor
