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4th May 2020

Educational setting status form

Please accept our apologies for any problems you may have experienced on Friday 1 May when accessing the DfE Sign-in to submit your status and attendance data. We have resolved these issues and the service is now available again.

Please continue to provide information on your educational setting’s status during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. If you were unable to submit your attendance data figures on Friday, please submit only today’s figures in your return.

The online educational setting status form is available here:

Updated guidance for parents and carers on the closure of educational settings

The guidance for parents and carers on the closure of educational settings has been updated with additional information on the Friday 8 May Bank Holiday, a link to the updated admissions appeals guidance and updates to the support and educational resources available to parents to help them educate their children at home.

The guidance can be found here:

Private candidates entered for GCSEs, AS and A levels

Ofqual has published an update to its guidance on private candidates entered for GCSEs, AS and A levels this summer.

The guidance can be found here:

The Joint Council for Qualifications has published supplementary information which is available here:

Schools, colleges and other exam centres that have accepted entries from private candidates for exams this summer should contact those candidates as soon as possible to let them know whether they will be able to provide centre assessment grades for them and include them in their centre’s rank order. Centres should seek advice from the exam board on more complex cases.

Government support package for universities and students

The Government has today announced a range of measures to protect students and the higher education sector from the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19). The stabilisation and support measures include temporary student number controls and £100m of public funding being brought forward to this academic year to help protect university research activities. In addition, an estimated £2.6bn of tuition fee payments will be bought forward to help universities better manage financial risks over the autumn.

This announcement can be found here:

Updated guidance on the induction of newly qualified teachers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

We have updated the guidance on the induction of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. We recognise that the current situation will impact on the number of days NQTs may be absent this academic year. Absences related to coronavirus (COVID-19) will not count towards the 30 day absence limit or trigger an automatic extension of the induction.

The guidance can be found here: