Government may ‘extend school day’ in England after reopening

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Ministers are considering proposals to extend the school day to help children catch up on lost time in the classroom, it was claimed today. 

The idea is being pushed by some Tory MPs and the Government is said to be receptive to the proposal as it tries to remedy the damage done by lockdown. 

Should teaching unions object to such a move, it is thought that school buildings could be used for extended classes but with volunteers covering lessons, according to The Times. 

Downing Street said at lunchtime that the Government is working with teachers and parents on catch-up plans, adding: ‘The PM acknowledges that extended schools closures have had a huge impact on pupils’ learning which will clearly take time to make up.’ 

It came as Government scientific advisers claimed that Boris Johnson is being ‘overcautious’ by sticking to his plan to reopen schools in England on March 8 at the earliest. 

Some of the experts advising ministers believe ‘there really isn’t a case for keeping all kids off until March 8’ due to the success of the vaccination drive and falling case numbers.   

They believe the large-scale roll-out of coronavirus jabs means there is no risk of a return to classrooms triggering a massive third wave of infections. 

However, scientific opinion is split on the issue with other experts arguing that even March 8 could be too soon for pupils to return.  

Mr Johnson is under growing political pressure to bring forward the date for reopening schools after studies suggested that vaccines do reduce the risk of transmission. 

Tory MPs are pushing the PM to follow Nicola Sturgeon’s lead after she announced that pupils in Scotland will start to go back to school after half-term from February 22.   

The PM has said he intends to stick to his March 8 date because that will be the point at which millions of the most vulnerable people who have been given the jab will have built up their immunity.  

But Professor Robert Dingwall, a member of the Department of Health’s NERVTAG committee on respiratory viruses, told The Telegraph he believes the vaccine roll-out would allow an earlier return for schools.   

Speaking in a personal capacity, he said: ‘Many people looking at this think it’s a tolerable risk to get the kids back, as the Scots are doing. 

‘We could start getting primary school children back after half term and there really isn’t a case for keeping all kids off until March 8. 

‘The Scottish advisers tend to be more conservative than the English ones, so it’s very hard to resist the conclusion that the English are being a little overcautious this time.

‘If you have the first three years of primary coming back immediately after half term that is not now going to create an explosive third wave.’

Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M) which advises the Government, said: ‘The latest Sage data on the contribution of reopening schools on the R-number is between 0.2 and 0.5. 

‘That’s a huge range and my reading of the evidence is that it is at the lower end, which would suggest you could reopen primary schools after the February half term.’

However, other scientific experts believe returning to classrooms too soon will result in a spike in infections and that case numbers still need to fall a lot further before schools can reopen. 

Mr Johnson insisted earlier this week that his March 8 date is the ‘prudent and cautious approach’ and that he does not intend to deviate from it. 

He told a Downing Street press conference: ‘We have got to make a judgement about the effectiveness of the vaccines in bringing down the death rate and bringing down serious illness.

‘That judgement we are going to make in the week of the [February] 15th. We are going to look at all the data, we have seen some promising stuff from Israel but to the best of my knowledge we are not yet seeing the kind of conclusive data that we need on that key point.

‘Then we want to be waiting to ensure that after February 15 we leave three weeks for all the JCVI cohorts one to four, all those most vulnerable groups… have allowed their vaccination immunity to be acquired and as you know it takes about three weeks for it to properly set in.

‘That speaks to a date of about March 8. Then of course you need to give the schools two weeks notice to open.

‘For all those reasons we think that’s the sensible date. I just would say to people who understandably want to go faster, I share that anxiety and that urgency because we fought so hard and for so long to try to keep schools open, I think that was a reasonable thing to do, but what we don’t want to do now that we are making progress with the vaccine roll-out and we have got a timetable for the way ahead, we don’t want to be forced into reverse.

‘So we think this is the prudent and cautious approach and I think it much better to stick to that.’

Psychologist mother-of-two says she was forced to quit work to home-school her children after her boss refused to furlough her – as employers are accused of ‘sex discrimination’ against working mums

By Amie Gordon for MailOnline

A psychologist has revealed how she was forced to quit her job to home school her children because her employer refused to furlough her. 

Analise La-Band, a chartered occupational psychologist and mother-of-two, had to quit her job last summer in order to teach her children at home as schools closed during lockdown. 

Her story comes as it emerged more than 2,000 mothers have had their requests to be furloughed refused amid the lockdown this year. 

Employers are now being warned they face an imminent ‘mental health crisis’ and could be guilty of sex discrimination if they refuse to furlough parents. 

Ms La-Band told Radio 4’s Today programme that she was forced to resign due to the pressures of home schooling. 

The mother-of-two said: ‘Unfortunately I was forced to resign last summer as a result of the difficulty of trying to balance work and home school. 

‘My request for furlough was rejected and I didn’t see any other option so I’ve not been working since. 

‘I’m obviously very concerned with how I can maintain my career and get into the workforce again at some point, having had to make a very difficult decision to withdraw from it when i really wouldn’t have had i had any other choice at the time.’ 

The job retention scheme currently allows bosses to furlough parents who can’t work due to a lack of childcare.

But the Trade Union Congress revealed that more than 2,000 working mothers, or 70 per cent, have had furlough requests turned down following the recent school closures. 

Joeli Brearley, who set up the organisation ‘Pregnant Then Screwed’, which fights for parents’ rights. 

She told the BBC that bosses who are rejecting furlough requests could be guilty of ‘indirect sex discrimination’ if they refuse to furlough working mothers. 

She also warned of a mental health crisis as burnt out parents are being forced to work 17-hour days, incorporating six hours of tuition into their working day. 

She said couples are taking it in turns to do home schooling, beginning work at 5am then rotating child care and working late into the night. 

She told MailOnline: ‘Women are now just walking out of their jobs because they just can’t keep doing it, and their mental health is so bad. They’re walking away.

‘Our analysis from ONS data shows that women aged between 25 and 34 have the highest per cent of redundancies and between August and October last year, women were 60 per cent more likely to be unemployed than men. 

‘It’s so concerning having mothers out of the workforce because it’s so dificult to get them back in. 

‘We should be deeply concerned about it, because it is about child poverty at the end of the day it – it affects whole families.’

She told Radio 4: ‘Many are not getting any break whatsoever…you’ve got six hours of unpaid work you now need to cram in to you job.

‘The average day has increase from 9 hours to 11 hours under lockdown – that’s already 17 hours of work you have to do before you consider cooking or cleaning or shopping or sleeping, or doing anything for yourself whatsoever. 

‘We’re hearing from frantic mothers who are completely burnt out and their mental health is rapidly deteriorating.

‘They can request to be furloughed and we would hope that their employer would consider that – but 70 per cent of mothers who’ve requested to be furloughed have had that request rejected. 

‘That could be indirect sex discrimination, because the caring responsibilities usually fall to women. 

‘And so if [employers] say you can’t be furloughed, that could be perceived as sex discrimination. 

‘We would really ask them to seriously consider that and if they don’t, they’re they’re going to have a mental health crisis on their hands. 

‘Over the summer between a third and 40 per cent of employers made redundancies so many are surviving on skeletal staff and desperately trying to rebuild their business.

‘Of course they need their employees, and they need them on full productivity, but sadly we’re seeing mothers being pushed out of their jobs because they’re unable to work on full productivity.’

Founder of the blog Mother Pukka, Anna Whitehouse added: ‘What working parents have been tasked with in lockdown is not humanly possible. 

‘You’re looking at an average eight hour working day, six hour school day, 12 hours of parenting wrapped around that – that’s 26 hours in a 24 hour day. And I’m hearing daily from women who are stepping back, standing down and logging off because they’re burning out.

‘Some are quitting out of choice, many not. Because who looks after kids home-schooling? Who looks after pandemic patients when out of hospital? Who takes a Tesco shop to elderly neighbours? Who runs community What’s App groups making sure everyone has everything they need?’