Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to tackle unequal access to education as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Schools are continuing to receive additional funding in the form of the pupil premium – worth around £2.4 billion annually – to help them support their disadvantaged pupils. This includes those who have been in receipt of free school meals at any point in the last six years, and looked after and previously looked after children.

The government has also committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers. The department has ordered over 200,000 laptops and tablets for vulnerable and disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examination in Year 10, receiving support from a social worker or are a care leaver.

We are providing over 50,000 4G wireless routers to disadvantaged children with a social worker in secondary school, care leavers and children in Year 10 who do not have access to a suitable internet connection through other means. We are also working with the country’s major telecommunications providers to make it easier for children in vulnerable and disadvantaged families, who are relying on mobile data, to access online educational resources.

To support the hard work of schools in delivering remote education, 40 teachers have come together to develop the brand-new Oak National Academy, launched at the start of the summer term. The Oak Academy provides 180 video lessons for free each week, across a broad range of subjects, for every year group from Reception through to Year 10. Education resources are also available offline. Children will be able to draw on support from the BBC, which is broadcasting lessons on television, and may choose to access the many hard copy resources offers which have been produced by publishers across the country.

We recognise that, for some children, there will be a need for additional support where they have not been able to learn in the same way that we would have expected this term. We are working with a range of partners, including the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), to establish how schools can best help their pupils – including those from disadvantaged backgrounds – to make up lost ground. In particular, we are very supportive of the work being taken forward by the EEF and other organisations to pilot online tutoring for disadvantaged pupils during the summer term.