A senior MP is calling for an extension of the school day to help pupils catch up on lost learning during the pandemic and to improve their mental health.
Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons Education Select Committee and a former skills minister, will today call for a range of measures to reduce the impact of the pandemic on pupils.
His speech will be made to tie in with Anne Longfield’s final speech as children’s commissioner.
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“Upon their return to school, every pupil must be urgently assessed as to the extent of lost learning and how much catch-up is needed,” he will say.
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Catch-up is “not just about algebra and Shakespeare”, he is due to say, adding that children’s mental health has become “dangerously fragile”.
Mr Halfon is set to add: “Extending the school day - to encompass physical activity, mental health support, as well as academic tuition - would support their broader recovery.”
He will argue that this could be supported by local community groups, education charities, other schools and universities, and could help to improve pupils’ mental health, as well as reducing their risk of involvement in knife crime.
Mr Halfon will also call for pupil premium funding to be refocused towards the long-term disadvantaged, as well for the use of family hubs to help pupils become “school-ready”.
He will criticise the government’s use of £2.5 million in funding for further research on the issue.
“Yet again, DfE money is going to think tanks which could be spent on frontline services,” he will say.
And he will also call for money earmarked for opportunity areas to instead be spent on “boosting teaching quality in our most disadvantaged areas, achieved by incentivising highly commended initial teacher training providers to work with disadvantaged schools”.
“And teaching bursaries, retention payments and salary bonuses to good teachers in challenging areas could be introduced, to avoid flight of local talent,” he will say.
