By Gavin Mackintosh –
Good schools will request teachers to work in the evenings and over weekends and half-terms to help disadvantaged pupils catch up, according to former Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw.
Summer schools on their own will not be good enough to help all those who have fallen behind due to the coronavirus outbreak, Mr.Wilshaw said
Speaking on BBC’s Newsnight programme on Monday night, the former chief inspector was responding to a question in relation to whether disadvantaged pupils would be able to catch up after spending long periods out of the classroom.
In response to a question of whether summer school would be enough to help disadvantaged pupils catch up he replied: “I doubt it. They’ve lost 12 weeks, they’ll lose even more…it’ll need more than a summer school programme to make up the lost ground.
“I would imagine good schools will be saying to their staff, ‘We want you to come in over weekends, we want you to do twilight programmes, we want you to come in over half-term breaks as well.
“Now the unions might cavil against that but I think a lot of teachers who will want to do well by their children will do that voluntarily, and the government – if there is money – should be incentivising school budgets to help headteachers pay them in those times.”
But Sir Michael said he worried that if summer school programmes are held in venues other than schools, pupils may not show up.
“The children will want to go back into the school they know, where they’ve formed a relationship with the teachers,” he said.
The Department Of Education recently announced the prospect of summer schools for disadvantaged pupils who have missed out on classes due to the coronavirus.