Teachers should be producing catch-up plans for every pupil before the end of term and may have to work over the summer holidays, the education secretary has said.
He replied: “The prime minister and myself are in complete agreement. We need to be doing everything that we can do to support children who have suffered as a result of not being in school.
“And we’re asking all schools, even if the pupils are not attending school, to be getting in touch with those children, trying to encourage and invite them into school so they can have some face to face time, understand their learning needs, and actually give them the support to be able to catch up and be in the best possible position to be able to benefit from the world-class education that they will be receiving within the classroom in September.”
Asked by Tes if he wants teachers to work during the summer to help their pupils catch up, Mr Williamson said one of the government’s schemes is “to have children coming back during the summer into schools”.
“We’ve already set out - and there’s some brilliant work by the Education Endowment Foundation about how teachers and schools can support their pupils,” he said.
“One of those packages that we’re putting out - we’re putting a billion pounds behind this catch-up plan, Covid catch-up plan. So it’s a big investment of an awful lot of money.
“One of those schemes is to have children coming back during the summer into schools.
“But we recognise it’s really important for the schools to be able to tailor their plan for their children to make sure it delivers the maximum impact, so those children catch up and really succeed.”
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