Education secretary Gavin Williamson faced MPs today in a hearing on Covid 19‘s impact on schools after a tumultuous first 10 days of the new term. 

He was questioned by the Commons Education Select Committee on major issues including Covid testing, vaccines, remote learning, closing schools and the free school meals controversy.

Here are six things we learned from the education secretary’s appearance this morning.

Gavin Williamson: No apology from the education secretary for last-minute decisions

Remote learning: Teachers encouraged to do live video lessons 

Covid: Primary school pupils set to be tested at home

1. Gavin Williamson says he is fighting for school staff to get Covid vaccines

The education secretary told committee chairman Robert Halfon that he was fighting “absolutely tooth and nail” to move teachers and school support staff up the priority list for being vaccinated. 

He said that it was “understandably right” that the government had chosen to prioritise people most at risk of going into hospital.

But he told the MPs that in the next wave he saw people who work in schools as the “top priority”.

2. The DfE wants primary school pupils to get Covid tests at home 

The Department for Education is working with Public Health England on plans to ensure that primary school pupils can be tested at home for Covid-19.  

DfE permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood said these plans would be piloted first.

Mr Williamson told MPs that although school staff will be supervising secondary school students who test themselves, it would not be “right or appropriate” for staff to be expected to do the same for primary pupils.

3. Edenred will run another school meals voucher scheme (but schools don’t have to use it)

Mr Williamson confirmed this morning that Edenred, the contractor that ran the controversial voucher scheme for pupils on free school meals last year, would be doing so again.

This scheme will start on 18 January - almost two weeks after the lockdown began

Mr Williamson also told MPs that schools could receive funding for locally procured vouchers. 

And he said he was “disgusted” at the images of food parcels being sent to pupils which have caused controversy on social media. Mr Williamson said the sector had been told this was not acceptable. 

4. The DfE did not know about new variant of Covid when it issued legal threats to keep schools open

Mr Williamson was questioned about his decision to impose a legal direction on Greenwich Council ordering it to backtrack on plans to move schools online during the last week of last term. 

He defended the decision by saying that Greenwich’s Covid rates were not as high as other parts of the country that had kept their schools open earlier in the term.

He also told MPs that at that stage the department did not know about the spread of the new variant of Covid - which is now driving the rise in cases that the country is facing.

5. Williamson wants schools to deliver live lessons during lockdown

On the question of remote learning, the education secretary encouraged teachers to conduct live online lessons during the lockdown.

He said: “I think that live online lessons can inform [and] be an important part of the whole package of what teachers and schools are able to offer, and it is certainly something that we would encourage them to see as part of that whole package of what they can deliver for children.”

6. Williamson offered no apology for schools disruption

The education secretary failed to apologise to school leaders for - in the words of committee members - “causing undue stress and pressure” with “repeated last-minute communications” on Covid decisions.

Asked during the hearing this afternoon whether he would apologise to the NEU teaching union and school leaders for not heeding their advice on school closures, and for repeated last-minute communications “causing undue stress and pressure”, Mr Williamson did not give a direct answer.