Report to the Director of Education

This report provides a further update on the impact of COVID on schools in the city and how this has been responded to during the Autumn term 2020. This includes an overview of remote learning which is provided by our schools when pupils are required to self-isolate. The report provides an update on how the COVID winter grant was used to make provision over Christmas for children and young people eligible for free school meals and also summarises recent guidance for schools from the Government on summer term assessment, remote learning and testing. Finally, the report provides some information on plans to develop testing in schools during the spring term.

The Committee received a report of the Director of Education which provided a further update on the impact of COVID-19 on schools in the city and how this had been responded to during the Autumn term 2020. Members were also provided with an update on how the situation had changed since the report had been published.

Some of the main points and themes highlighted by the Director of Education included:

• The remote learning offer;
• How the COVID Winter Grant was used to make provision over Christmas for children and young people eligible for Free School Meals;
• The announcement the previous week that schools and colleges would only be open for vulnerable children and children of critical workers, with other children accessing remote learning from home;
• The cancellation of GCSE and A-level examinations, noting that the Council and schools were still awaiting further guidance on how pupils’ grades would be assessed; and
• Testing for COVID-19 in schools.

The Executive Member for Children and Schools expressed concern about how the situation had been managed by the Department for Education (DfE) and outlined the challenges that schools had faced.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Sharing the Executive Member’s concern about the way the situation had been managed by the national government, in particular the Secretary of State for Education, including that decisions were being made late and were not well communicated;
• The impact of this on schools and pressure on schools’ senior leadership teams;
• To thank officers and the Executive Member for their work supporting schools during this challenging time;
• The challenges that schools were facing due to the high number of families who met the criteria for being critical workers;
• To highlight that schools and colleges offering vocational qualifications to students in Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 were informed that the examinations did not have to go ahead less than 12 hours before they were due to start;
• That it was important to remember and to continue to remind government that Manchester schools had been dealing with high infection rates since September 2020, including over 17,000 pupils having to self-isolate, and the impact this had had;
• Request for more information on COVID-19 testing in schools, including whether it would be voluntary;
• The challenges of remote learning, including pupils’ access to the internet and devices and whether the expectations for the amount of remote learning taking place were sustainable;
• The impact of the pandemic on pupils in Years 10 and 12 who were due to take GCSE and A-level examinations in 2022;
• Concern that there was a lack of consistency between schools about requiring staff to come into the school building to deliver online lessons; and
• That providing food parcels to families who were entitled to Free School Meals instead of vouchers or money was inappropriate and stemmed from negative attitudes towards and lack of trust in working class families.

The Director of Education clarified that COVID-19 testing in schools was currently voluntary and only for secondary and college-age students who were attending school.  She reported that, even where families had internet access, many did not have a separate device for each school-age child to use and that feedback indicated that secondary-age children were being given priority for this in many families; however, she advised that remote learning did not have to take place online.  She reported that children who did not have access to remote learning or a quiet space at home to work were now classed as vulnerable pupils who could continue to attend school but that this added to the challenges schools were facing with the number of pupils who met the eligibility criteria for attending school.  She advised Members that, even if pupils were awarded fair GCSE and A-level grades which took into account the additional challenges children in this region had faced, they would still have missed out on their education and parts of the course content.

The Executive Member for Children and Schools supported the Committee’s comments regarding Free School Meals.  He expressed concern about the quality of some of the food parcels provided to families and that benefits were not sufficient for people to be able to feed their children.  He advised Members that both schools and families were in a difficult position regarding the issue of which children should be in school and that there needed to be better communication to employers about who should or should not still be going into work and appropriate financial support put in place.  He informed Members of the positive feedback from schools about the support they had received from the Council during the pandemic. 

In response to Members’ questions, the Director of Education reported that Alternative Provision was required to remain open for all pupils and that supplementary schools could stay open, although many supplementary schools had chosen to move to remote learning, and that both these types of settings were being provided with support and guidance by her team.  She outlined how the Council was working to achieve a consistent approach across the city, liaising with trade unions and sending Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and other communications to all schools.

Decisions

1.                    To thank the Director of Education and her team for all the support they have provided to schools during the pandemic and to ask her to pass those thanks on.

2.                    To agree that the Chair of the Committee writes to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Education to raise concerns that the Secretary of State is not fit for the post.