Can Summer Schools Help Disadvantaged Pupils Bounce Back from Covid?

Loic Menzies, Chief Executive, at The Centre for Education and Youth, suggests an idea for recovery of pupils who have fallen behind during the Lockdown.

As a trainee teacher, I often needed a bit of extra cash to pay for my rock climbing habit. Fortunately, I was training at the height of London Challenge so my schools’ pockets were rather deeper than they are at the moment. That meant I could opt to sacrifice a few days’ holiday and teach some lessons over the break in return for an extra payment. A few days of these payments easily funded a drive up to the Lake District and a pitch for my tent, with a few pounds left over for a pint or two of Wainwright Ale at the Old Dungeon Ghyll pub.

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      string(5945) "This National Audit Office (NAO) report examines the Education Department’s support for children’s education during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic between March and July 2020, and its action to help children catch up on the learning they lost during that period. The report covers the Department’s overall response to the pandemic; the support provided for children’s learning, both in school and remotely; and the impact of disrupted schooling on children.The Department for Education took action to support schools and pupils in response to COVID-19, including ensuring that schools remained open for vulnerable children and funding online resources for those learning at home. Aspects of its response, however, could have been done better or more quickly, and therefore been more effective in mitigating the learning pupils lost as a result of the disruption.The Department had no pre-existing plan for managing mass disruption to schooling on the scale caused by COVID-19. From April, the Department developed COVID-19 response plans to support schools and vulnerable children. It also established nine regional education and children’s teams (REACT), which focused particularly on vulnerable children. However, it was not until the end of June that it began to formulate a plan that set out objectives, milestones and risks across the Department. The Department has not yet systematically evaluated its response to the early stages of the pandemic to identify lessons for potential future disruption to schooling.In the early stages, recognising the challenges that schools were facing, the Department set no requirements for in-school and remote learning, but it gave more direction as the pandemic progressed. The Department decided that, for the 2020/21 academic year, it needed to make clearer schools’ responsibilities for providing remote learning given the continued disruption, and placed a legal duty on schools to deliver this learning. It also strengthened its expectations about the quality of online and offline resources that schools should provide to pupils learning remotely.Most vulnerable children did not attend school between late March and the end of the summer term, increasing risks to their safety and welfare. The proportion who attended school or college remained below 11% from 23 March to late May, rising to a weekly average of 26% by the end of the summer term.Children from different backgrounds had contrasting experiences of remote learning. The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that, at secondary level, 82% of pupils in private schools had received active help, such as online classes, or video and text chat, compared with 47% of secondary state school pupils in the poorest fifth of households. Schools in more deprived areas may have held back from adopting online activities to limit the impact of children’s unequal digital access at home.The disruption to schooling is likely to have long-term adverse effects on children’s learning and development, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. In a July 2020 survey, the National Foundation for Educational Research found that 98% of teachers considered their pupils were behind where they would normally expect them to be. The Education Endowment Foundation projected that school closures in the 2019/20 academic year might widen the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers by between 11% and 75%, with a median estimate of 36%, likely reversing progress in narrowing the gap since 2011.The NAO recommends that the Department should track the longer-term impact of COVID-19 disruption on all pupils’ development and attainment, focusing particularly on vulnerable and disadvantaged children, and respond to the results. This should include assessing the catch-up programme and acting quickly to ensure it is achieving value for money, and the National Tutoring Programme schemes are reaching disadvantaged children as intended.Key Findings:From April 2020, the Department prepared COVID-19 response plans for its support for schools and vulnerable children, but it did not develop an overarching departmental plan until June.In the early stages, the Department set no requirements for in-school and remote learning, but became more directive as the pandemic progressed.At January 2021, the Department had paid, or intended to pay, schools £133 million (73%) of the £181 million they had claimed for exceptional costs arising from COVID-19 between March and July 2020.The timeliness and volume of the Department’s guidance caused difficulties for schools.Governments in other countries generally responded to the pandemic in a similar way to the Department.Most vulnerable children did not attend school between late March and the end of the summer term, increasing risks to their safety and welfare.Provision for children attending school varied widely, with evidence suggesting those in the most deprived schools were less likely to be taught the curriculum.The Department funded a well-received national online resource to support schools and pupils with remote learning from April onwards.The Department provided laptops, tablets and 4G routers to a proportion of the children in need of support, but did not deliver most of the equipment until June.Children had contrasting experiences in terms of the remote learning resources schools provided and the level of contact teachers maintained.Remote learning presented children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a range of challenges.The"
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Leadership

Support for Children’s Education During the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic

16 Mar 2021

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This will be combined with funding already from existing DfES resources to create a £30.5 million package over the next two years to support achievement of the 10 year Science Framework. This investment will help us to increase the number of science teachers as well as the number of young people taking physics, chemistry and mathematics A-levels, and getting the top grades in science GCSEs.· Enterprise Education: confirming that £2 million announced at the PBR will be used to create 23 enterprise summer school pathfinders to be delivered by Young Enterprise to 1000 pupils across the UK in summer 2006. The summer schools will help young people build a range of key skills, develop stronger links between business and schools and give pupils and students a better understanding of their future role and responsibility in the economy.· ICT: £10 million (£5m in 2006-07 and £5m in 2007-08) for ICT to ensure access to the internet for the most disadvantaged secondary school pupils. 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Leadership

Budget 2006

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      string(5794) "This interim report from the Commissioner for Fair Access on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fair access to higher education considers both the direct impact of the public health measures that have had to be taken and indirect impact of actions taken by colleges and universities to mitigate the worst effects of these measures.The COVID-19 pandemic, and the public health measures taken to combat it, have the potential to deliver a serious check to the impressive progress that Scotland has made towards fair access to higher education. 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It is likely that, because of the limited supply of qualified applicants from socially deprived communities and other disadvantaged groups, a majority of these extra places were filled by applicants from more privileged social groups. The abandonment of the SQA’s proposed algorithm for moderating teacher assessed grades avoided some negative consequences for fair access. But it is still unclear whether teachers tended to give lower grades to pupils from more deprived social backgrounds. The unplanned inflation in Higher grades and increase in the number of first‑year places led to students being admitted to university who in previous years would probably have been enrolled on Higher National programmes in colleges. In the first phase of the pandemic schools were closed, with almost all learning online. This disadvantaged pupils from deprived communities because of limited access to suitable IT and study space. 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Leadership

The Impact of COVID-19 on Fair Access To Higher Education

6 Jan 2021

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      string(5778) "Schools serving more deprived pupils in England have already seen the largest falls in spending per pupil over the last decade, according to this report by the lnstitute for Fiscal Studies.School spending per pupil in England fell by 9% in real terms between 2009–10 and 2019–20. This represents the largest cut in over 40 years, though these cuts come on the back of a significant increase in spending per pupil of over 60% during the 2000s. Recent cuts have mainly been driven by cuts to school sixth-form funding and big reductions in the spending role of local authorities. Cuts look similar whether we compare against general inflation or school-specific cost changes over the last decade.The government has allocated an extra £7.1 billion for schools in England through to 2022–23. This will increase spending per pupil by 9% in real terms between 2019–20 and 2022–23 (as measured against expected general inflation) and near enough reverse the cuts of the 2010s. If we account for expected increases in teacher pay, the real-terms increase in spending per pupil will be lower, at 6%. In either case, school spending per pupil in 2022–23 is set to be no higher in real terms than in 2009–10.Secondary school spending per pupil fell by 9% in real terms between 2009–10 and 2019–20, partly reflecting cuts of over 25% to sixth-form funding per student. In contrast, primary school spending per pupil has grown by 4%. As a result, the per-pupil funding difference between secondary and primary schools fell from 30% at the end of the 2000s to 16% in 2019–20. This continues a long-run trend, with this funding difference already down from over 50% during the 1980s. Whilst empirical evidence shows high benefits to spending at younger ages, it is not clear evidence supports such a dramatic shift.This report analyses the extent to which plans are targeted at the likely challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as pre-existing challenges such as the teacher labour market and the state of school buildings.Key Findings:School spending per pupil in England fell by 9% in real terms between 2009–10 and 2019–20. This represents the largest cut in over 40 years, but came on the back of a significant increase in spending per pupil of over 60% during the 2000s. Over the 2010s, cuts in spending per pupil were lower in Wales (5%), but similar in Northern Ireland (10%). In contrast, spending per pupil in Scotland rose by 5% in real terms over the 2010s, reflecting extra funding to pay for increases in teacher pay totalling more than 10% over 2018 and 2019. Spending per pupil is highest in Scotland (£7,300), of similar levels in Wales and England (£6,100) and lowest in Northern Ireland (£5,800). The government has allocated an extra £7.1 billion for schools in England through to 2022–23. This will increase spending per pupil by 9% in real terms between 2019–20 and 2022–23 (as measured against expected general inflation) and near enough reverse past cuts. If we account for expected increases in teacher pay, the real-terms increase in spending per pupil will be lower, at 6%. In both cases, school spending per pupil in 2022–23 would be no higher in real terms than in 2009–10. Secondary school spending per pupil in England (£6,000) was about 16% higher than in primary schools (£5,200) in 2019–20. This is down from a secondary/primary funding difference of 30% in 2010–11, partly reflecting large cuts to school sixth-form funding. It also continues a long-run trend, with the funding difference down from over 50% during the 1980s. Whilst empirical evidence shows high benefits to spending at younger ages, it is not clear evidence supports such a dramatic shift. The school funding system in England provides greater levels of spending to more deprived schools to help narrow the achievement gap between rich and poor. During the 2000s, the funding advantage enjoyed by the most deprived schools grew from 20–25% in 2000–01 to 35% by 2010–11. Despite the introduction of the Pupil Premium in 2011, the deprivation funding premium shrank back to 25% in 2018–19. This can be partly explained by faster falls in deprivation inside London and a school funding system that did not adjust to such changes. In the long run, the new National Funding Formula should ensure the funding system is more responsive. However, the new formula will deliver funding increases of 3–4 percentage points less to schools in poorer areas up to 2021. We also see faster falls in spending per pupil of 13% for deprived secondary schools outside London since 2010–11. These patterns run counter to the objective of using school funding to ‘level up’ poorer regions. Given lost schooling and a likely widening of educational inequalities during lockdown, the government has announced a range of measures to help schools. These include a one-off extra £80 per pupil aged 5–16 and a national tutoring programme. Whilst the focus on tutoring is well aligned with empirical evidence, the plans are modest compared with the likely reductions in skills. Only the National Tutoring Programme is targeted at more disadvantaged pupils, making it harder to address the inequalities that have widened during lockdown. Faster falls in spending per pupil over the last decade, slower increases under the National Funding Formula, a likely widening of educational inequalities and higher costs associated with higher teacher starting salaries, given that deprived schools are more likely to employ new teachers, all provide a case for greater"
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Leadership

2020 Annual Report on Education Spending in England: Schools

22 Sep 2020

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      string(430) "... usethis funding specifically to help close the gap inachievement between their economically disadvantagedpupils (as defined by the pupil premium eligibilitycriteria) and the rest of their pupils.Clearly schools are continuing to struggle with thechallenge of raising standards of achievement becausethe gap between disadvantaged pupils and otherscontinues to be huge. According ..."
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      string(5823) "76Vol 5.3School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileLeadershipResourcesRaising standards withthe pupil premiumIn view of the governmentdrive to get students‘secondary ready’ andthe increased levels ofaccountability for howteachers make use of theirpupil premium to do this,Jenny Townsend offers someadvice on what Ofsted will belooking for in primary schoolspending.Since the introduction of the pupil premiumfunding back in 2011, the coalition governmenthas made it clear that it expects schools to usethis funding specifically to help close the gap inachievement between their economically disadvantagedpupils (as defined by the pupil premium eligibilitycriteria) and the rest of their pupils.Clearly schools are continuing to struggle with thechallenge of raising standards of achievement becausethe gap between disadvantaged pupils and otherscontinues to be huge. According to the government,in 2012 only 68 per cent of all eleven-year-olds eligiblefor the pupil premium achieved their expected levelsin English and maths compared with the 84 per cent ofother pupils aged 11 who did.The government clearly wants this situation tochange. Their latest consultation, launched in July 2013,aims to raise standards even higher in primary schoolswith the requirement that by 2016, at least 85 per cent of77Vol 5.3School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileLeadershipResourcestheir pupils will be achieving higher standards and will be ‘secondary ready’.Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, made his intentions very clear when he said:‘Every primary school should strive to make its pupils ready for secondary school bythe time they leave. All the evidence shows that if you start behind, you stay behind. Abetter start at secondary school is a better start in life.’1Proposed changesTo assist schools with the achievement of these new targets, the government plans toraise the pupil premium funding for primary schools to £1,300 per disadvantaged pupilfrom 2014/15. (This represents an increase of £400 per pupil up from the £900 per childcompared with this current year).Linked to the higher expectations contained in the new curriculum, thegovernment will also be introducing updated tests for eleven-year-olds. These newtests will cover maths, reading, spelling, punctuation and grammar. There is to be anew scaled score (the same for all tests) that would remain the same over the yearslinked to the level that eleven-year-olds would be considered ‘secondary ready’. Theold system of levels (with level 4 being the expected level) is to be removed. Thegovernment considers these levels to be lacking in ambition, too generalised andfailing to give parents sufficient clarification about how their children are doing.In the future, schools will be encouraged to develop their own systems formeasuring pupil performance and to design improved ways of reporting to parents.The government plans to introduce a new reporting system which will enablecomparisons to be made between each individual pupil and their peers on a nationalbasis. All pupils will be placed within ten per cent bands(or deciles). Information collected through this newreporting system would only be made available toschools and parents.The government also wants to establish a newbenchmark that can be used to assess the progress thateleven-year-olds make. At this stage, the consultationmakes no recommendations about how this benchmarkmight be developed but it does encourage ‘interestedparties’ to make suggestions.Increased accountabilityDuring the summer of 2013, Ofsted published updatedversions of the School Inspection Handbook, theInspection Framework, and the SupplementaryGuidance. As anticipated, Ofsted has raised the levels ofaccountability that schools now need to have in terms oftheir spending of the pupil premium and its impact.From September 2013, to gain an outstandingjudgement for the achievement of pupils, schoolsmust, amongst other requirements, now take accountof the following grade descriptors which have specificrequirements relating to the Pupil Premium:‘From each different starting point (referring to specific levels in Key Stage 1 andKey Stage 2), the proportions of pupils making expected progress and the proportionsexceeding expected progress in English and in mathematics are high comparedwith national figures. For pupils for whom the pupil premium provides support, theproportions are similar to, or above those for other pupils in the school or are rapidlyapproaching them.’‘The achievement of pupils for whom the pupil premium provides support at leastmatches that of other pupils in the school or has risen rapidly, including in English andmathematics.’‘The learning of groups of pupils, particularly those who are disabled, those whohave special educational needs, those for whom the pupil premium provides support,and the most able is consistently good or better.’The importance of these descriptors is reiterated in the grade descriptorsrelating to the quality of leadership and management. In order for a school to get anoutstanding judgement in leadership and management, inspectors will want to seeevidence that ‘the school’s actions have secured improvement in achievement forAs anticipated, Ofstedhas raised the levels ofaccountability that schoolsnow need to have in termsof their spending of thepupil premium and itsimpact.“”www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/school-inspection-handbook78Vol 5.3School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileLeadershipResourcesthose supported by the pupil premium, which"
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Leadership

Raising standards with the pupil premium

25 Oct 2013

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