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30th June 2020

Summer holiday arrangements

The Secretary of State for Education has confirmed that we are not asking schools to open over the summer holidays, and there is no expectation that schools should open for vulnerable children and children of critical workers over this period. Teachers, support staff and school leaders deserve a break, to recharge and rest.

However, we are aware that some school leaders may be considering using their catch-up premium to provide summer school activities for their pupils. Where this is the case, you have the flexibility, discretion and autonomy to decide how you want to do this. To support schools in planning how to use the catch-up premium, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has produced a guide, which includes advice on summer schools and a link to the Teach First toolkit specifically focuses on summer schools, for schools that choose to do this.

The EEF guide can be found here:

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/covid-19-support-guide-for-schools/

The Teach First toolkit can be found here:

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/

Leicester local lockdown

The Health Secretary made a statement in the House of Commons last night announcing measures to implement a local lockdown in Leicester and the surrounding areas. The safety of children and the education workforce is of the utmost importance. Nurseries, schools and colleges in Leicester, Oadby, Birstall and Glenfield will only be open to children of critical workers and vulnerable children from Thursday 2 July. This is alongside other steps to halt the relaxation of measures locally to control the spread of the virus.

We are working with the local authorities and individual nurseries, schools and colleges to support them to follow the public health advice. These measures will be reviewed after two weeks. Education and childcare settings should continue to follow the protective measures guidance which sets out the actions they should take if there is a confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) in their setting.

Schools in the Leicester and Leicestershire area should continue to submit the educational setting status form via the online portal to report whether they are open and how many children and staff are in school.

Update on the educational settings status form

Thank you for completing this daily return. Your data helps us build a national picture of educational provision so that we can focus support more effectively, monitor the impact of the virus, and ensure children are safe.

From today, we are automatically populating selected parts of the return from the previous day to reduce the time needed to complete it. Selected fields covering eligibility to attend, reasons for closure and free school meals will be pre-populated based on figures which you have most recently returned to us. You will still be able to update these figures as needed.

The educational settings form can be found here:

https://form.education.gov.uk/service/educational-setting-status

Coronavirus Act 2020 – Notices to temporarily remove or relax statutory requirements in education and childcare

We recognise that during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, flexibility will be needed in education and childcare settings, and for local authorities and health commissioning bodies. The Secretary of State for Education has previously issued notices, under the Coronavirus Act 2020, to temporarily remove or relax specified statutory requirements (and provisions in academy arrangements). The most recent notices were issued on 28 May 2020. The specified period in which those notices applied was from 1 June 2020 to 30 June 2020.

The Secretary of State for Education has reviewed the notices and decided to issue new notices with the same effect (applying from 1 July 2020 to 31 July 2020) to:

  • disapply offences for non-attendance in schools so that parents will not be penalised if their child does not attend school.
  • modify pupil registration requirements so that a child is not to be registered as a pupil at a school merely because education is provided for them at the school on a temporary basis for reasons connected with the coronavirus outbreak.
  • disapply the duty on Ofsted to undertake routine inspections of state-funded schools within prescribed intervals. Duties on other bodies to provide a statement of action and relating to the inspection of collective worship and denominational education are also disapplied.
  • modify the duty on local authorities and health commissioning bodies to secure or arrange the special educational and health provision specified in education, health and care (EHC) plans, so that they can discharge this duty by using ‘reasonable endeavours’.

We will continuously review whether these notices are an appropriate and proportionate action in all the circumstances relating to the incidence or transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19). Further notices may be made as a result.

Children and young people’s wellbeing

We know that children and young people’s safety and mental wellbeing is a priority for schools. Now that schools have the flexibility to invite pupils in for a face-to-face meeting before the end of this term, this is a good opportunity to check-in on their wellbeing. We have a developed a ‘Focussing on Wellbeing’ leaflet with advice and access to resources to help those teachers who want to have a wellbeing ‘check-in’ with their pupils.

The Focussing on Wellbeing leaflet can be found here:

https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/resources/campaigns/40-school-zone/resources/5122

As children return to school, you may have specific concerns about their safety and wellbeing. You may find the Home Office’s new children and young people safeguarding resources helpful, which includes posters you can download and guidance to parents and carers on keeping children safe from abuse and harm.

The Home Office safeguarding resources can be found here:

https://homeoffice.brandworkz.com/BMS/albums/?album=2092&lightboxAccessID=9AD9C142-A301-458E-8BE489B20777137A

The advice to parents and carers on keeping children safe from abuse and harm can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-keeping-children-safe-from-abuse-and-harm