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.
Ofsted won't be staying home
Ofsted will be visiting schools in person when their monitoring inspections start, the watchdog has revealed.
Headteachers had called on the watchdog to carry out its monitoring inspections remotely - as it had done during the last lockdown in November - because of concerns about the spread of Covid.
Ofsted faces calls to stay away from schools during lockdown
Ofsted inspections are due to resume in ten days time but there has been uncertainty about how they are being carried out.
Today the inspectorate has faced calls not to go into schools during the national lockdown.
Ofsted is scheduled to begin carrying our monitoring inspections from January 18.
The Association of School and College Leaders has written to chief inspector Amanda Spielman asking her to confirm that these inspections will be carried out remotely as Ofsted’s visits were during the last lockdown.
And the Local Government Association has said that Ofsted should halt its inspections altogether until after the February half term break at the earliest.
Christmas Covid peak
One in 27 secondary pupils and one in 39 primary pupils had coronavirus on Christmas Day, new statistics show.
The data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today shows that 3.77 per cent of secondary pupils and 2.54 per cent of primary pupils tested positive for Covid-19 on 25 December.
Read more here.
Ofsted inundated with praise for teachers and schools
Parents have joined forces to write to Ofsted to show support for teachers and school staff for their work during the pandemic after the government said parents could report schools to Ofsted over their remote learning provision.
On Wednesday, education secretary Gavin Williamson told the House of Commons that parents could report their child's school to the inspectorate if they were unhappy with the remote learning offer.
Covid will still spread in schools if numbers of pupils in classroom remain high
Schools have gone into lockdown but there are concerns that the number of pupils still attending could undermine it.
The group have recommended that the government narrow the definition of key workers and increase furlough support for people to bring down the number of pupils attending during the new national lockdown. It has also called on the government to take steps to make sure schools are safe when pupils do return.
Schools in ‘impossible’ position over key workers
The government has put schools in an "impossible" position through its failure to define "key workers", headteachers have warned.
Children with one key worker parent can attend school during the lockdown but some schools are finding they are nearly full to capacity, prompting heads to warn that they will not be able to "reduce social mixing" in line with the aims of the national lockdown.
Read more here.
Confusion over key worker pupils
Good morning,
As the first week of this second period of school "closures" draws to a close, heads are questioning how they can support the lockdown and help to reduce social mixing when eligibility for "key worker" status has not been defined, meaning that many more pupils are attending schools.
However, fresh guidance issued to schools by the Department for Education yesterday stated that key worker places must not be restricted.
You can catch-up on all of yesterday's news here.
