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, 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.
Williamson contradicts Ofsted by saying live lessons are ‘best’
Education secretary Gavin Williamson has said today that live teaching is the "best way" of delivering teaching – putting him in opposition to the Ofsted view that live lessons are “not necessarily the gold standard”.
Mr Williamson was answering MPs' questions in the House of Commons today when he said: “What we do want to see and we do want to encourage is as much live teaching as possible which [is] shown to be the best way in terms of delivering teaching.”
However, last week Ofsted’s research head, Professor Daniel Muijs, said it was an “unhelpful myth” that the best way to deliver remote education was through live lessons.
Should teachers have to police school uniform online?
Teachers are being "worn down" in a battle to enforce school uniform rules in live remote lessons – yet it's a battle they shouldn't be fighting in the first place, it has been claimed.
With remote learning the norm under the latest coronavirus lockdown, Tes has been made aware that some schools are insisting on school uniform being worn for live online lessons.
Headteacher Simon Kidwell, of Hartford Manor Primary, in Cheshire, described the idea as "ridiculous".
But Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, says schools should be supported in making decisions about remote lessons that work best for their context.
You can read more here
Urgent call for rethink on 'critical worker' definition to ease teacher pressure
After official data last week showed a fifth of primary pupils were in school during the third national lockdown, heads have warned this could undermine the attempts to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
And now a committee of the House of Lords has called for a review to be carried out "urgently" into the definition of "critical worker", to reduce the number of pupils eligible to attend school.
The current situation "not only works against the aim of limiting the spread of infection but is also detrimental to educational standards as teachers struggle to cope with teaching in person and online at the same time", according to the committee.
Read the full story here.
Exam plans leave plenty for schools to ponder
Good morning.
In what has become almost a Friday afternoon tradition during the pandemic, the DfE - together with Ofqual - released a set of hugely important plans late last week.
The consultation on how GCSE and A level results will be decided this summer provides teachers and heads with a lot to pore over during the two weeks it is set to run.
The suggestion that teachers could create their own test papers, or mark papers set by boards, raises a whole load of questions - as discussed by our news team in our weekly podcast on Friday.
We'll continue to probe the proposals, and you can catch up on all of the rest of last week's Covid and schools related news here.
