Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has today faced MPs’ questions on Covid lockdowns, extending the school day and pupils with special educational needs.

In his first appearance before the Commons Education Committee since replacing Gavin Williamson, Mr Zahawi set out some of his main priorities.

The department’s permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood also gave evidence at the committee. 

Covid catch up: Zahawi pushes back on extending the school day

Lockdown: MP launches bid to make school closures more difficult

Zahawi: SEND review is a high priority

Here is everything you need to know:

1. There are ‘no plans’ to close schools again over Covid

The education secretary told MPs he had “no plans whatsoever” to close schools again during the pandemic.

Mr Zahawi pledged to keep schools open, saying testing pupils for Covid-19 and vaccinating eligible children will help to keep them in class.

His comments come as committee chair Robert Halfon introduced a bill in the Commons today which calls for a “triple lock” of protections to ensure that any future school closures would have to be approved by Parliament.

Mr Zahawi told MPs that he would look at Mr Halfon’s bill.

Addressing the committee, Mr Zahawi said: “Protecting face-to-face learning is my absolute priority. I have no plans whatsoever to close schools again.

“I know that the way we maintain face-to-face learning is through boosting the most vulnerable in our society…vaccinating the 12- to 15-year-olds as well, and of course the testing programme.”

The education secretary added: “My commitment to you is that this secretary of state will keep schools open because actually we know the damage by shutting schools.”

2. Zahawi not sold on longer school day for all

Mr Zahawi was also questioned over whether the Department for Education plans to lengthen the school day to help pupils catch up on lessons following school closures.

Mr Halfon asked the education secretary if he supported a longer school day.

Responding, Mr Zahawi said the government’s Covid recovery spending - which is just under £5 billion - was targeted at disadvantage rather than extending the day. 

He said: “What the chair is asking about is ‘are we going to have a longer school day?’. No, we’re not on the whole. We’re saying we’ve got targeted funds to deliver.”

He added: “Let me deliver that £5 billion, continue to evaluate, come back to your committee and show you, I hope, how well we’ve done, because the evidence suggests that actually targeting and extending the day for 16- to 19-year-olds, which we’re doing, is the right thing.”

The education secretary committed to publishing its review of extending the school day by the end of the year.

3. Zahawi wants all mainstream schools to be ‘SEN schools’

Mr Zahawi was asked by committee member MP Tom Hunt whether the current accountability system is too focused on outcomes and whether this is fair for schools with a higher proportion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities [SEND].

Mr Hunt said: “If you are a mainstream school and you get a good reputation locally when it comes to meeting the needs of young people with special educational needs…it is likely…that more parents are going to want to try to get their kids into that school and that it is going to have a growing number of young people with special educational needs.”

Mr Hunt said that if “the system is too tilted towards outcomes” we would not want schools to be punished for getting a good local reputation on SEND.

Mr Zahawi responded: “I think you are right. This is, I guess, a challenge for me is to make sure that actually all mainstream schools are SEN schools and I need to send that message very clearly to the sector that that is what this secretary of state expects.”

4. SEND Review to be published next year

Mr Zahawi also told MPs that he hoped the department would publish the long-awaited SEND review in the first quarter of next year.

The review has been repeatedly delayed during the Covid pandemic, having first been launched by former education secretary Gavin Williamson more than two years ago.

When DfE officials appeared before the Public Accounts Committee in July, they were unable to provide MPs with a date for when it will be published.

Mr Zahawi told headteachers at the NAHT school leaders’ union conference last month that the SEND review was a high priority for him.

5. National Insurance will cost schools £300m

Answering a question on tackling the widening disadvantage gap, the education secretary said that the planned increase to core schools funding would allow schools to better support disadvantaged pupils.

However, he acknowledged that some of the increase in funding would be taken up by schools meeting National Insurance costs.

He said: “The school’s budget gives more headroom - an additional £1.6 billion - now part of that will go on things like the National Insurance costs of about £300 million but nevertheless that does give a bit more headroom.”

At the government’s recent spending review, it was announced that schools will receive an additional £4.7 billion in core funding in 2024-25, including £1.6 billion in 2022-23.

6. DfE plays down scale of school anti-vaccination protests 

Ms Acland-Hood told the committee that the scale of anti-vax protests outside schools has been “quite small”.

She said: “I have a report that hits my desk every week on the number of incidents that we’ve seen and it’s typically a kind of handful, a single digit.”

Mr Zahawi had told MPs it was “totally unacceptable” for any school leader to be “harassed or threatened” by anti-vaxxers.

7. Details on home education register due by year end

Mr Zahawi told MPs that the government was committed to creating a home education register.

He told the select committee that the department would provide more details in its response to the Children Not in School consultation by the end of this year.

The consultation, carried out in 2019, sought views on proposed legislation to establish a register maintained by local authorities of children not attending mainstream schools.

A report published by the Commons Select Education Committee in July of this year called for a national register of home educated pupils to be created. The DfE said at the time that it was committed to this idea.