After keeping lessons running online since lockdown began in March, teachers shouldn’t have to work over the summer holidays unless they volunteer, say unions.

But if they do work, should they be paid extra? What are the alternatives and are summer learning programmes really worth it?

Tes explores some questions and answers on what is becoming more of a talking point as the summer holidays approach.

Read: PM promises a ‘huge summer of catch up’ for pupils

Related: ‘Open schools over summer holidays’

Coronavirus: ‘Pay teachers to work in summer schools’

Why might teachers be asked to work over the summer?

Education secretary Gavin Williamson is about to announce plans for “huge summer of catch-up” amid widespread concerns about the loss of learning during school closures and the widening attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their classmates.

Some have suggested this would mean extra work for teachers during the holidays. Former Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has said: “I would imagine good schools will be saying to their staff, ‘We want you to come in over weekends, we want you to do twilight programmes, we want you to come in over half-term breaks as well.”

But hasn’t the government ruled out schools opening over summer?

Gavin Williamson said last month that “we will not run schools over the summer” - but could yet another government u-turn over schools policy be on the cards? Speculation in some quarters is centring on the idea of summer “camps” offering arts, sport and support on wellbeing rather than reading, writing and maths in schools. Private tutoring is also expected to play a major part.

School leaders have suggested that educational catch-up cannot happen over the summer break precisely because it would need to be teacher-driven.

“All the stuff that should happen if it’s educational should be driven by teachers and what that means is either before the summer holiday begins or after the summer holiday ends,” Association of Schools and College Leaders (ASCL) general secretary Geoff Barton has said.

Could summer working be made compulsory for teachers?

The NEU teaching union states that classroom teachers can only be directed to teach for 190 days per academic year, as stated in the DfE’s School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document.*

It says that limit will be reached at the end of term on account of the fact that teachers have continued to teach over the past few months during lockdown.

Therefore, the NEU says any work during holidays would have to be voluntary.

The NASUWT says the same. At Easter, Tes reported how some of its members had complained their school had forced them to work the holidays for vulnerable children and those of key workers, where such work should have been voluntary.  

What about heads and other school leaders?

The NEU points out that teachers in leadership roles are not covered by the 190 days rule. But, it says, any direction to work by their headteacher or employer “would still have to be reasonable”.

ASCL says there should be no expectation on schools and colleges to open during the summer holidays.

“Many institutions have remained open continuously by providing hubs for key worker and vulnerable children throughout the coronavirus emergency,” Mr Barton said. “Staff need and deserve a break ready for an autumn term that is likely to require relentless and focused teaching in uncertain circumstances.”

Would teachers be paid extra for working over the summer?

If teachers were to work, former Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw says they would have to be paid more and that the government should be “incentivising” school budgets to help headteachers afford this.

ASCL also says there should be “appropriate remuneration”, while the NASUWT guidance says “schools should have systems in place so that they can pay volunteers”.

What other options are there apart from teachers working?

Chair of the Commons Education Select Committee Robert Halfon MP has said he would support “some kind of summer school” run not by teachers but by volunteers, including retired teachers and Ofsted inspectors.

And Labour’s shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said teachers who have left the profession should be coaxed back to help pupils during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Labour. 

Will summer learning be worth it and will it be enough?

Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield says opening schools over the summer holidays would not only help children catch up, but could also help to provide vital childcare as parents try to get incomes back and return to work after lockdown.

The charity Teach First says summer schools should be part of the “intensive recovery provision” funded by the Department for Education.

However, Sir Michael Wilshaw said summer school programmes would not be enough to help those pupils who have fallen behind, and that if summer school programmes were held in venues other than schools, pupils may not show up.

He said: “The children will want to go back into the school they know, where they’ve formed a relationship with the teachers,” he said.

Some heads say pupils having to attend summer school to catch up on schoolwork would feel as if it was “a punishment for an evil they did not cause”. 

*The STPCD applies to teachers in LA maintained schools by law, and to the vast majority of those in academies as well by contract.