Responding to the publication of the Government’s funding
allocations for schools in 2021-22, Liberal Democrat Education
Spokesperson
said:
“The Conservatives’ spending plans show no understanding of the
challenges facing schools in September. They have asked schools
to open as normal when our Test and Trace system is faulty.
Teachers must try to reverse the harm to children’s learning,
development and mental health, when many disadvantaged children
have disappeared off schools’ radars entirely during
lockdown.
“In the face of this crisis, spending plans announced last year
are utterly unfit for purpose. All the Government has added is a
catch-up premium worth just £80 per pupil per year, and a
tutoring fund. It’s simply not enough to pay for the small group
teaching that Ministers say our children need.
“The pandemic requires us to invest in education at all levels on
an unprecedented scale. That’s why Liberal Democrats have
launched a five-point plan to re-open schools safely, provide
laptops to those who need them and close the disadvantage gap, so
that we can give every child a great start in life.”
ENDS.
Notes to Editors:
Full details about the Government's funding allocations are
available here.
See below for full details of the Liberal Democrats’ five-point
plan for reopening schools to more pupils in England.
- Increase capacity for physical learning, by combining local
spare space registers, so that local councils and school leaders
can find suitable empty buildings in the community to use as
learning spaces.
- Recruit an army of extra teachers to cope with demand. The
Government should launch a Teach for Britain recruitment campaign
to bring out-of-work supply teachers and recently-retired
teachers into schools so more pupils can return. This builds on
the success of the Social Work Together campaign, developed with
the Local Government Association. Ministers should work with
unions to get more teachers into learning spaces in any one
school day.
- End the online learning void for thousands of children.
Ministers should develop a bold strategy to leave no child behind
by partnering with the private sector to get laptops and internet
access to any disadvantaged child currently unable to learn
online. The Government’s current target to provide 230,000
laptops has left out too many children. Councils are neither
receiving the equipment they have asked for, nor seeing high
uptake rates for the kit they’re given. The Government should
launch a major advertising campaign to encourage families and
children to ask for equipment, backed up by working with schools
to get more physical resources including textbooks to children
lacking internet or computer access.
- Design a flexible, phased reopening that follows the science
and has the trust of parents and the profession by being
developed with them, following the lead of in Wales. Schools should aim to begin the next
academic year on time in September, but double the autumn
half-term break to two weeks. We must recognise that many
schools are doing a fantastic job at phased reopening, and
ensure local authorities, academy trusts and government are
learning from their successes.
- Halt the widening of the disadvantage gap. The Government
should combine the summer provision of free school meals with an
emergency uplift in child benefit of £150 per child per month,
with £100 for every subsequent child, during this crisis. The
catch-up premium should be worth at least £700 for every
disadvantaged child eligible for the pupil premium, to enable
schools and charities to give them a much-needed boost in the
next academic year. Ministers should create a Summer Learning
Fund so that councils can run summer learning camps for children,
focused on local authorities in the most deprived areas. This
will prepare children for September and give many children a
positive environment in which to learn and re-acclimatise to an
educational environment. The Government should fund places on
these courses for children on free school meals.
