Struggling parents urge teachers to scrap long break and run ‘summer schools’ to fix ‘national emergency’
STRUGGLING parents have urged teachers to scrap their upcoming six-week break and run 'summer schools' instead - in a desperate bid to get kids back in the classroom.
One in six parents have said the summer holidays should be cancelled as their children "have missed enough school" as it is, a survey has found.
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Schools in England were shut on March 20 as the coronavirus lockdown began, forcing busy mums and dads to home school their kids.
A survey of more than 7,500 parents by Childcare.co.uk found 18 per cent want the summer break to be cancelled as a result.
Of those wanting it cancelled, just under 75 per cent said their children need to make up the time they have missed in the classroom.
More than half (58 per cent) also argued that any more time away from formal learning "will be very detrimental to their education".
'SUMMER SCRAPPED'
Five ex-education secretaries have suggested teachers return to school in August - as pressure mounts to get pupils back in the classroom.
They have set out ideas for how classrooms can be improved after lockdown, including teachers giving up a portion of their six-week holiday to get things ready.
Labour's Lord Adonis, an ex-schools minister, has drawn up the blueprint for ministers, urging them to bring back teachers in August.
His proposals also suggest recruiting retired supply teachers who can fill in for teachers needing to self-isolate and hiring church halls to provide more space.
They also suggest loosening social distancing rules as well as stocking up on hand sanitiser, masks and thermometers in classrooms.
WAR STYLE PLANNING
Lord Adonis told The Times: "I see no reason why we cannot have a complete return of schools in September subject to proper organisation and leadership by the government.
"We did this king of planning in the Second World War; we should be able to do it in 2020."
But teaching unions have rejected the plans.
Co-general secretary of the National Education Union, Kevin Courtney, said he supported much of the plan, but added that teachers should not miss out on their holiday.
He said: "I do not think that it is sensible asking people to give up their contractual holiday. Teachers have been working really hard in this period."
Millions of pupils will have missed more than four months of school as a result of the lockdown come September - with parents being made to school them from home instead.
Education Unions have been at loggerheads with the Government over when children should return to school - with many rejecting plans for primary school pupils to return at the start of June.
'EVERY CHILD BACK'
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said on Friday that the Government is committed to bringing back “every child back, in every year group, in every school” next term.
And he claimed classes could return to full numbers by increasing the ‘protective bubbles’ kids are placed in at school from 15 to 30.
He told the No10 press conference: “We’ve been creating bubbles of children in the classroom, creating a protective environment for those children.
“Currently that is at 15, what we would be looking at doing is expanding those bubbles to include the whole class.”
He added: “We recognise there is still going to have to be protective measures put in place to make sure children are safe and make sure that teachers and all those who work in school are safe as well, and that is why we are going to be issuing further guidance in the next two weeks.”
Boris Johnson has also vowed to get all children back to full-time school in September.
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The Prime Minister paved the way for the great summer return by insisting it was time for the nation to stop living in fear of coronavirus and to get fed-up children back in the classroom.
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He said: “I want a world in which — as far as possible and provided we can make the classrooms safe, which I think we can — every child, every pupil, every student is back in September.
"I’m sure we can get it done.”
