Welcome to the Tes coronavirus liveblog. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is causing uncertainties for everyone.
Schools are facing unprecedented disruption, with classrooms currently closed to all but the children of key workers and vulnerable pupils.
Here, we aim to help teachers in the UK and in international schools by gathering together all the relevant stories in one place and keeping you updated with the latest news and announcements as and when they happen.
And, as ever, we also want to hear from you. What is different in your school and in your working life because of the virus? If you have stories you want to share or information you think should be circulated, then contact us at:
william.stewart@tesglobal.com, charlotte.santry@tesglobal.com and Mary-Louise.Clews@tes.com
It’s likely that some students will display challenging behaviour when schools reopen fully next month, writes middle leader Elena Diaz.
Some will have experienced trauma and loss in the past year, and many may find it unsettling to go back into the highly structured environment of a classroom after having experienced a relatively high degree of freedom. So how can we tackle it while still being sensitive to our students’ circumstances?
Diaz, who is head of MFL at a secondary school in the North East of England, offers four key tactics to bear in mind, from staying flexible when difficulties arise, to placing focus on skills for learning.
You can read them here.
No A level pegging?
The education secretary has said that this year's GCSE and A-level grades will not be pegged to any other year.
Taking questions today in the House of Commons, Gavin Williamson said the decision was taken not to attempt to tether results to a "certain year" as this would "probably entail the use of some form of algorithm".
Read more here.
8 ways to boost remote literacy skills
Literacy skills are vital for young learners, so how do we support them best during lockdowns around the world?
Gemma Tonge, a primary teacher at a British International school in China, has some ideas that she thinks are worth sharing - from letting children host creative presentations to building literacy into other lessons subjects - all to help provide some last minute boosts to learning before schools start to return to full in-school teaching.
Read more here.
No coursework moderation this year
Ofqual has revealed that GCSE and A-level students' coursework assessments will not be moderated this year.
In the regulator's document outlining the final decisions of its consultation on grading in 2021, it said that "we will not require the exam boards to moderate teachers’ marking of [coursework] this year, as some students would not have completed their coursework and it would be difficult to moderate unfinished work.Opinion in the consultation responses was divided on the issue, with 55 per cent of respondents arguing that teachers' coursework marking should be moderated.
Read more here.
Defunct GCSE papers back in play
GCSE and A-level students this year could be assessed on questions based on "legacy" exam papers from before the reform of qualifications, which began in 2015.
In Ofqual's document on its final decisions after its consultation on grading, it says that for some GCSE and A-level subjects that were reformed later, materials from pre-reform exam papers may need to be used, as part of resources provided by exam boards to schools to help teachers assess students’ grades.
The regulator says exam boards will provide schools with questions from past papers for each subject, as well as new, "unseen" materials. But for some subjects reformed later, there may not be enough past papers to use, meaning that materials from pre-reformed papers may also need to be included.
Read more here.
DfE’s Ofqual adviser resigns over 2021 grading plans
A DfE nominated Ofqual adviser on this year's GCSEs and A levels has warned that grading plans "risk an outcome....much worse than last year".
Sir Jon Coles, a former director general at the Department for Education, wrote on Twitter: "The government is getting itself in a terrible tangle about assessment and qualifications.”
He said the government was “desperate not to be accused of having ‘an algorithm’ or of ‘exams by the back door’” but that this risked worse outcomes for students than in 2020.
Today is was reported that Sir Jon had resigned.
Read more here.
Is the DfE's £405m catch-up cash really new money from the Treasury?
A multi-million pound pot of catch-up cash announced this week has widely been reported as new money.
But is it possible that it has just been shifted from other education initiatives? Despite repeated questioning the DfE is refusing to say.
Tes has been asking the DfE since Tuesday night to specify whether the £405 million is actually new money from the Treasury.
When pressed on that point again this morning, the department said the level of detail requested by Tes about where the fund was coming from would be among information published by the Treasury at defined budgetary moments.
Read the full story here.
Grade inflation fears
Further warnings have been raised of potential "excessive grade inflation" following the publication of final plans for GCSE and A-level grading today.
Mini exams are optional extra resource
The use of external tasks set by exam boards to determine this year's GCSE and A-level grading has been contentious, with school leaders previously raising concerns that students must not sit mandatory "mini exams".
Under the final plans for this year's grading now released by Ofqual and the Department for Education, external tasks set by exam boards will indeed be optional for teachers to use, with exam boards issuing guidelines to schools about their use before the Easter holidays.
Read more here.
Appeal burden avoided
Teachers will not have to deal with most work to do with students' appeals over this year's GCSE and A-level results after all.
Appeals over the teacher-assessed grades will be free of charge for students and a flood of them is expected.
Read more here.
Teacher grades green lit
Plans for A-level and GCSE students to receive grades awarded through teacher assessment this year, with help from exam boards, are to go ahead.
But, as Tes revealed this week, students will not get their results in early July as Ofqual and the Department for Education had originally proposed. Results day will be in early August instead, giving a buffer of two weeks for students to appeal grades before securing university places.
Read more here.
Catch-up on catch-up
Good morning,
Yesterday we finally got more details of the “catch-up” package that ministers hope will do something to relieve pupils’ Covid learning loss.
It amounts to more tutoring, summer schools, and a “recovery premium”. But it is still unclear how much of the money is a fresh injection of education funding from the Treasury.
And there are already warnings that the funding that has been ear-marked for catch-up is not enough, and education secretary Gavin Williamson was seemingly unclear over how many pupils he thought it could help.
You can read more of yesterday’s coronavirus related schools news here.
