The Reader: Private schools can ensure no pupil is forgotten

For too many children during lockdown, their education has been nothing short of catastrophic. Academic studies suggest that 2.3 million pupils have done virtually no schoolwork — at all. Forty per cent have had little contact with teachers and 14 per cent of children in foster care have received none at all.

We know that in April, just five per cent of vulnerable pupils were attending school, despite classes being open to them.

The lockdown has caused significant difficulties for children who have already been left behind in the education system. Summer schools and camps could not be more important to help them catch up.

This is why the initiative by Thomas’s Battersea to tutor 200 disadvantaged children over the coming weeks is so welcome [News, Aug 3 ].

Using the Department for Education’s catch-up fund, public-private school partnerships should be replicated across the country to establish Alan Turing schools to parallel the Nightingale hospitals.

These schools can adopt the best practice from the private sector, supported by voluntary and charitable agencies, such as Action Tutoring, The Tutor Trust and MyTutor. While it is not possible to compel private schools to do this, they should be reminded of the significant financial tax benefits they receive from charitable status.
Robert Halfon MP,
Chairman of the Commons education select committee

Editor's reply

Dear Robert

You are right that lockdown has been a catastrophe for the education of many children.

Some had excellent remote schooling, while others had virtually nothing.

Now the holidays are here the gap will widen further.

Children with access to money and parents who organise activities will thrive — but those without are still stuck at home stagnating.

There must be a serious push to narrow the gap that threatens to turn into a chasm.
Anna Davis, Eduction Editor