Education: Return in January

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Wednesday 30th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

In tribute to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will be very brief in answering the hon. Gentleman. He probably heard in my earlier response that we are rolling out the distribution of 1 million laptops, more than 150,000 of which will be going out over the first couple of weeks of the coming term. The measures that we have seen meant that, actually, 99% of schools were able to open. We had excellent attendance at schools across the country, including in areas with high infection rates, and areas with high infection rates were able to maintain schools being open. The measures that we are taking, in terms of a mass testing regime, will ensure that schools can continue to remain open, which I am sure he will celebrate.

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

I want to thank all the teachers and support staff across Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke. I welcome my right hon. Friend’s commitment to mass testing. My main concerns, however, remain about children—particularly those in disadvantaged homes—and the work with catching up. The national tutoring programme is helping students in Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke to catch up, but we can also use alternatives to the Oak National Academy, which is online. Will my right hon. Friend speak to textbook publishers to see whether they will be willing at cost price to send textbooks to some of our most vulnerable children to enable them to sit their exams this year?

[Gavin Williamson]

My hon. Friend so often has brilliant ideas, and I would be very happy to sit down with him to look at how we could do that. The Minister for School Standards is one of the greatest advocates in this country of textbooks and of their real impact and the support they offer students in their learning. We can sit down and discuss my hon. Friend’s thoughts and ideas.