New ways of teaching that have emerged during the coronavirus pandemic will have a lasting impact on education for years to come, education secretary Gavin Williamson has said.

Developments such as the Oak National Academy, the National Tutoring Programme and increased blended learning will have an impact “not just for the next year or two”, he said during a webinar today held to mark 150 years of state education.

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Mr Williamson said that, as well as looking back, the anniversary was also an opportunity “to imagine a positive future”.

“As we move out of this [pandemic], we have to use this as an opportunity to make the changes that need to be made to make sure that our education system is stronger for the future than it has been in the past,” he said.

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“When future generations look back on this, I will hope that they will see some of the resilience that has been shown, the resourcefulness that has been shown, and the ingenuity that has been shown by our educators and our teachers who have all done so much to ensure pupils can continue to learn in the most extreme circumstances.”

Mr Williamson continued: “As a result of this, we have seen new ideas emerge - new platforms , new ways of teaching, new ways of being able to ensure that children from whatever background are able to benefit.

“And new innovations such as the Oak National Academy, the ability to deliver blended learning for some of the children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, the innovation of the National Tutoring Programme which has been pioneered by the Education Endowment Foundation -  all these ideas that will hopefully have a lasting impact not just for the next year or two years, but will have a lasting impact on the education of our children.”

He added: “Education should never be about standing still. It should never be saying that we’ve got everything right and therefore do not need to change. We should always be looking at how we can innovate, how we can reform, how we can drive change that will benefit children. That is what we are going to be doing as we come out of Covid.”