Extracts from Lords proceedings: Remote Learning - Jan 7

Friday, 8 January 2021 07:40

Extract from Lords debate to approve motions relating to Public Health

Baroness Watkins of Tavistock (CB):...I congratulate the Government on rapidly altering the training requirements for retired healthcare workers wanting to return to assist in vaccination, and I am pleased to report from a microsoft teams meeting with the CNO, Ruth May, and Mark Radford from the HEE this morning that there are sufficient permanent and recent volunteers to administer the vaccines for the foreseeable future. However, there remains a need for extra staff to work in clinical areas. Can the Minister confirm that that is the case and tell us what further interventions will be taken to increase the health and social care workforce this year, including intakes in September?

Extracts from Lords repeat of a statement on Education Settings

Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab) [V]:...On home schooling, could the noble Baroness update us on three issues? First, what progress has been made to relieve the financial burden of many families facing increased data charges? Secondly, how many pupils still do not have access to an adequate digital device and what further action is being taken to ensure that all pupils have access to the tech equipment they need? Thirdly, what are the Government doing to ensure that all school leadership teams are supported in their attempts to increase the online learning offer to home-schooled pupils? These are vital to stem the clear gap in provision between independent and state sector schools...

Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Lab) [V]:...I pay tribute to everyone who has made it possible to keep pupils learning online: school leaders, teachers and support staff, plus of course parents, who are having to cope as best they can with home schooling, often while juggling childcare or employment. It is essential that every pupil who is not in school be able to continue their education, and the Statement says that the Government are “better placed” to deliver online learning than they were last year. That remains to be seen. The Government need to adopt a plan to get every child online and every school enabled to deliver the necessary digital support. Despite the number of laptops already rolled out, Ofqual has said that as many as 1.75 million children still do not have access to a device. Will the DfE be redeploying officials to help identify those children and ensure that their technical support needs are met?

Lord Storey (LD) [V]:...For the vast majority of children and young people, online learning will support their educational development. It is vulnerable pupils and those on pupil premium who are most at risk. It is laudable that laptops are increasingly being made available for virtual learning at home, but this cannot take place if a family cannot afford the cost of internet provision and the monthly payments...

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Department for International Trade (Baroness Berridge) (Con):...In relation to online provision, strengthened guidance and direction has been given to schools on the number of hours per day they need to deliver, their accountability, and their monitoring daily to see whether students are engaging with it. We have spent more than £300 million on digital support for online learning and we have provided considerable support to schools themselves, linking some schools to other schools that were very good at such online provision, and were using technology before the Covid crisis. We have funded schools’ access to either Microsoft Education or Google Classroom, and more than 2 million accounts have been opened. Schools have been enabled to deliver this, which is why the direction is now in place.

Baroness Grey-Thompson (CB) [V]:...The Government are indeed under great pressure, but we know that many children’s health is adversely affected during the usual six-week summer holiday by lack of access to PE. Home educating our children is not easy and, taking into account current restrictions, physical activity might be inadvertently dropped. The Prime Minister repeatedly talks about the importance of exercise, which is fantastic, but what advice will Her Majesty’s Government give to those schools, children and families moving to online learning to help them know what they need to do to remain active and to think about their long-term health?

Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale (Lab): My Lords, this is just heartbreaking. The situation could have been foreseen and there have been many opportunities since last summer to put in place preparations to help avoid this national catastrophe for so many children and young people. Extra facilities for online learning could even have been used, giving young people a chance to get out of the home and into organised spaces with adult contact outside the family. There certainly could have been greater provision of equipment and recruitment of extra staff and volunteers since this debate started at the beginning of June.

However, I shall focus on two questions. First, in relation to work with telecoms companies to get data access for families who do not currently have it and, therefore, cannot take part in online learning at home, are the Government working with the devolved Governments to make sure that data access is available across the whole United Kingdom? Secondly, when will the Government guarantee to bring back external assessment? It is that, not internal continuous assessment, which is an equaliser across social divides and gives young people a chance to have a certificate matched not to their background or the school that they came from but directly to their abilities and schooling outcomes...

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