Private schools offer state pupils summer catch-up sessions

Private schools have offered to run summer catch up courses for local children, as they accuse ministers of “ignoring” their offers to assist.

Christopher King, chief executive of the Independent Association of Prep Schools, has written to the Education Secretary to express his “frustration” at the Government’s “reluctance to accept help” from fee-paying institutions.

In the letter, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, he said that members of his association were prepared to open up their buildings in July and August to run summer courses for children in their local community.

Mr King said that private schools could make a “significant difference” to the education of children in their local community by helping them get up to speed over the summer holidays, and would come at a minimal or no cost to parents.

The offer from independent schools comes amid rising concern about the plight of children during lockdown and fears that a decade of progress in narrowing the attainment gap is in danger of being reversed.

Research published earlier this week showed that more than two million children have done virtually no schoolwork during lockdown.

One in five pupils in the UK – equating to around 2.3 million children – either did no home learning at all or less than one hour a day, according to a report by University College London.

The study found that there was a huge gulf between the amount of home learning carried out by pupils at state and private schools.

Nearly a third (31 per cent) of private schools provided four or more online lessons each day, compared with just six per cent of state schools.

“In such circumstances, it is disappointing that the independent school sector’s offer of assistance has been ignored,” Mr King said in his letter to the Education Secretary.

“Given the key role that the private sector has played in the country’s response to the pandemic – such as private hospitals alleviating bed capacity issues and private industry tackling the shortfall in ventilators – the Government’s reluctance to accept help from the private education sector is even more frustrating.”

Ministers have faced criticism over their failure to reopen schools ahead of shops, cinemas, theme parks and zoos.

Downing Street has come under fire over its handling of reopening schools, having rowed back on plans to get all primary school pupils back to the classroom before the summer, then later said it would encourage this after all.

Earlier this month, new official guidance said every secondary school pupil in England will be allowed to return to school before the summer, but only for one day. Previously, officials had said only Year 10 and Year 12 pupils would be allowed back before the summer.

Mr King said that private schools have built up a great deal of expertise in how to deliver effective online learning, and now to get children safely back to the classroom.

“Online learning has been a huge success right across the private sector, the contrast with state schools is quite stark,” he said. “The overwhelming majority of our schools are now open to all year groups which is pretty impressive given the wider picture.”

Mr King added that private school heads are “only too willing” to lend their expertise as well as resources to the state education sector.

The Government will announce next week that social distancing will not be applied in schools and "bubbles" will be expanded to enable all pupils to return to their classes full-time in September.

Pupils will not be expected to keep two metres or even one metre apart at all times while in school buildings, it is understood. Instead, schools will be asked to focus on limiting the extent to which children mix outside their class or year group and on implementing strict hygiene regimes.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Our £1 billion Covid catch-up package will directly tackle the impact of lost teaching time as a result of the pandemic, which headteachers and school leaders have the flexibility to decide how to spend. Some may use this funding to provide summer school activities for their pupils.”