News round-up

It has been a huge week for news impacting on teachers, schools and colleges, kicking off with the prime minister’s much-anticipated unveiling of his roadmap out of lockdown, starting with the wider reopening of classrooms from 8 March.

We heard that all pupils will head back to schools, despite calls for staggered starts. The government said schools had flexibility to phase secondary school students’ return over the first week back to create capacity to Covid-test them all three times, and later in the week it said they could start testing students before the back-to-school date if necessary.

Then, on Wednesday, the government revealed its latest package to support schools’ efforts to ensure that pupils can catch up with lost learning, including summer schools, a “recovery premium”, more tutoring and early language support. The package is said to be worth £705 million, but £300 million of that is money the prime minister had already announced last month, and the Department for Education would not say if the remainder was new funding from the Treasury or money from within existing education budgets.

On Thursday, the government and exams regulator Ofqual announced how GCSEs, A levels and vocational qualifications, including Btecs, would be graded this year following a consultation. We learned that teachers will be expected to grade students based on a selection of evidence, including coursework mock exams, and class or homework assignments. They will also be able to use external tasks set by exam boards, but these will be optional, and could use material from defunct GCSE papers.

Fears about the potential for grade inflation were raised by many, including Conservative MP and chair of the Commons Education Select Committee Robert Halfon, who was told by education secretary Gavin Williamson that grades would not be pegged to any previous year’s results to avoid using an algorithim again.

Warnings about how the plans could backfire for teachers were sounded on Friday in an exclusive story from Tes, in which the chief executive of the Chartered College of Teaching, Dame Alison Peacock, said teachers were at risk of being vilified. She said their “chances of being able to use robust assessment that works across regions, let alone across the whole country, are almost zero” this late in the year.

Features round-up

Is rushing back to a full timetable really the best approach for schools as they reopen? The Covid catch-up narrative may be dominating the political agenda but a slower approach may reap longer-term benefits, finds Dan Worth.

Secondary students will be required to wear masks in class when schools reopen fully next month, but how can teachers make sure that they do? Teacher Callum Jacobs offers his advice on how to help young people stick to the rules.

Most schools are likely to have autistic staff but may not be making reasonable adjustments for them, writes Victoria Morris. Some simple changes - such as providing a mentor and offering a quiet space to withdraw to - can make a world of difference.

Covid-19 restrictions have brought major changes to the way the youngest students start their sessions, writes nursery school headteacher Julian Grenier - so could it be time for a rethink of these moments?

Is it OK for pupils to shout out in class? Yes, says Deborah Jenkins - rather than prompting a free-for-all, dispensing with the hands-up approach can help to teach pupils the parameters of discussion etiquette. (article free for subscribers)

Can creativity be taught? Stephen Burley and Philip Seal believe it can - and have developed an evidence-based course that invites their students to generate ideas and solve real-world problems using a structured, knowledge-based approach. (article free for subscribers)

When exams were cancelled again this year, few people asked the really big question: is it time to get rid of grades altogether? Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott reflect on what they consider to be an unfortunate accident of the early education system - and a way to fix it (article free for subscribers).