Buckingham MP Greg Smith has welcomed the Government’s announcement of a recovery support package for children and young people so they can catch up on missed learning and development due to the pandemic.
The Government will deliver a £700 million package, focusing on an expansion of one-to-one and small group tutoring programmes, as well as supporting the development of disadvantaged children in early years settings, and summer provision for those pupils who need it the most.
A new one-off Recovery Premium for state primary and secondary schools, building on the Pupil Premium, will be provided to schools to use as they see best to support disadvantaged students.
This will also help fund an £83 million expansion of the National Tutoring Programme for primary and secondary schools, which has been shown to boost catch up learning by as much as 3-5 months at a time; a £102 million extension of the 16-19 Tuition Fund for a further year to support more students in English, maths and other vocational and academic subjects; and £18 million funding to support language development in the early years – £10m to be allocated to a pre-reception early language programme and £8m for Nuffield Foundation to deliver the Nuffield Early Language Intervention for reception children.
£200 million will be available to secondary schools to deliver face-to-face summer schools. Schools will be able to target provision based on pupils’ needs but the government is suggesting they may want to initially target incoming year 7 pupils. This is alongside wider support funded through the governments Holiday Activities and Food Programme across the country.
A range of high-quality online resources will be available for all teachers and pupils, starting from the summer term and throughout summer holidays. These will be provided by Oak National Academy, to help give pupils the confidence they are ready for the next academic year.
Commenting, Greg said: “Getting children back into school has been the government’s top priority. I am delighted that from 8 March all children and students will return to face-to-face education in schools and colleges.
"I have had significant concerns for the wellbeing of children and young people throughout this crisis. The harms to children of these COVID measures are extreme and I have been lobbying for a massive package of support for our young people and children who have had their lives so badly disrupted.
"This package of measures will deliver vital support to the children and young people who need it most, making sure everyone has the same opportunity to reach their potential no matter their background.
"Teachers and parents have done a fantastic job with home schooling, but the classroom is the best place for our children to be. I am absolutely determined that every child and young person in Buckinghamshire should receive a high quality education and should face no further disruption to their education as a result of COVID.
"When schools re-open the Government’s urgent priority will be making sure that no pupil is left behind as a result of this pandemic.”
