Reactions to education recovery package

Kate Green MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education, responding to the Government’s announcement of funding to support children’s education recovery, said:

“This is not adequate and will not make up for the learning and time with friends that children have lost.

“There is no specific mention of supporting children’s mental health or wellbeing, which is fundamental to enabling their recovery from this pandemic.

“Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak spent more on the failed Eat Out to Help Out Scheme than they will on our children’s recovery. This package amounts to just 43p per day for each child.”

Commenting on the education recovery package announced by the government, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“We welcome this funding package and we look forward to seeing the detail in due course. It is vital that schools are able to decide on how they use the recovery premium based on their knowledge of pupils’ needs, and we are pleased to see the recognition that they will be able to spend this additional funding for evidence-based approaches. We are also pleased to see the Education Secretary’s acknowledgement that longer term support will be vital over the length of this parliament to ensure children make up for lost learning.

“It is frustrating that the £700 million package has been salami-sliced to such an extent that it may reduce its effectiveness. Our view is that the total sum of the money should go directly to schools, colleges, and early years providers, rather than being diverted into other pots or ring-fenced. By allocating a large sum of money to the National Tutoring Programme and apparently earmarking another large sum of money specifically for summer schools, there is less available to schools and colleges to use for catch-up support in general. The best way of ensuring that catch-up work is well-resourced is surely to maximise the amount of money available to providers to spend on the approaches that work best for their pupils.”

Commenting on the government’s education recovery plans, Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust and chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said:

“We know that the impact of the past year of disrupted schooling will be long-lasting and wide-ranging. In fact, unless decisive action is taken some children are never going to catch up. Today’s package of measures is a promising start that will help get our children’s education back on track, but there are no quick fixes. Undoing the negative impact of the last 12 months will require an ambitious consistent multi-year recovery plan.

“The strongest evidence for accelerating learning is for increasing time for high-quality teaching. Targeted summer schools are one way to achieve this, and it’s good that schools will have flexibility to decide what will work best for them and their staff. However, it’s important to recognise the problem of teacher burnout that could be exacerbated by additional workload.

“It’s particularly welcome to see the government take-up our recommendation to increase the pupil premium through the Recovery Premium in the next school year. This will allow schools to target resources directly at disadvantaged pupils, who we know are most likely to have lost out.

“Tutoring can play a significant part in the recovery, so it’s great that the government has committed to funding tutoring - including through the National Tutoring Programme - beyond this academic year. This should help close the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their classmates.”

Commenting on the government's new catch-up package, Natalie Perera, Chief Executive of the Education Policy Institute (EPI), said:

"While any additional support for schools is welcome, the government's package announced today is not enough to support pupils to catch up on their learning and to provide wellbeing activities for pupils of all ages. The new Recovery Premium is a step in the right direction, but £6,000 for the average primary school and £22,000 for the average secondary is much too modest to make a serious difference.

"The Prime Minister has acknowledged that a much more ambitious and long-term education recovery plan is needed. When this emerges, later this year, it must be bold enough to tackle the scale of lost learning, particularly for more disadvantaged pupils who are at risk of falling further behind."

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“Despite schools working tirelessly to provide remote education, we know that children’s learning has been disrupted as a result of multiple lockdowns. So this is a welcome provision of funding and resources.

“It’s important to recognise that recovery won’t be a quick or easy job. Fortunately, there already exists a wealth of knowledge within the profession about how to narrow achievement gaps. We need to trust schools to put in place a long-term approach based on what they know about the needs of their pupils. We are pleased that the government has recognised this expertise and is not prescribing exactly how they use this funding. This is a significant first step to help schools tackle the challenge at hand.

“Summers schools will be of value for some pupils but it will be important not to overwhelm students. Recovery cannot happen in a single summer.”