Schools need more guidance from the government on what they are expected to provide for children learning at home, the children’s commissioner said today.
Anne Longfield said there is a need for “greater consistency and guidance” because a “significant number” of children are falling through the gaps during the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking to the education committee of MPs, she said that when the country went into lockdown 700,000 children were without access to online technology for homeschooling.
Now provision is so patchy that some children are taking part in full day-long classes online, while others have had no contact with their schools, she said.
Some teachers are dropping off work for children in care and picking it up at the end of the day. But other children “haven’t had very much if anything at all.”
She added that, by September, eight million children will have been out of school for six months.
When shops reopen and there are more distractions, the problems will get worse and there are fears among headteachers that some children will struggle to ever return to school, she said.
She added that children can spend “two and a half months browsing in Primark” but not be at school.
The committee also heard that the narrowing of the attainment gap between poorer children and their richer peers had ground to a halt even before the pandemic.
