Right - your three-minute warning. Just enough time to grab a cuppa' and get comfortable before @GavinWilliamson makes his announcement on replacing GCSE and A-level exams this year

@GavinWilliamson .@GavinWilliamson says this isn't a decision the government wanted to take. 'Our schools have not suddenly become unsafe, but limiting attendance essential when Covid rates are climbing'
@GavinWilliamson He will set out the contingency plans he'd 'prepared but hoped to have never implemented'
@GavinWilliamson 'We're far better placed to cope with disruption than last march', Williamson adds we're better at delivering online learning and they will support parents
@GavinWilliamson Williamson says if parents feel they aren't getting suitable remote education they they should raise concerns first with the headteacher, and "failing that report the matter to Ofsted".
Ofsted will inspect schools where it has concerns
@GavinWilliamson Williamson says they've learnt lessons on exams. 'Although they are the fairest way, the pandemic means it's now not possible to have them this year. GCSEs, A-level and AS levels will not go ahead. We'll put our trust in teachers not algorithms'
@GavinWilliamson Breaking: Williamson says a 'form of teacher assessed grades' will be used this year, with training and support for teachers to 'ensure these are awarded fairly and consistently across the country'.
However details will need to be 'fine tuned'.
@GavinWilliamson Williamson says 'understandably concern' about free school meals. Extra funding to support schools to provide food parcels or meals to children. Where schools can't do this, there will be a national voucher scheme for every eligible child can access FSM will school remains closed
@GavinWilliamson He says mass testing 'won't be wasted'. Still used on teachers and staff.
Williamson adds: 'Testing is going to be the centre of our plan to return schools back to the classroom as soon as possible'
@GavinWilliamson .@GavinWilliamson says: 'The moment the virus permits all our children will be back in school. 'Until then we have put in place the measures we need to make sure they continue to progress.'
And that's that (well, on to Qs now)
@GavinWilliamson . @KateGreenSU says wherever Williamson goes, incompetence follows.
She says she wanted exams to go ahead, but said a Plan B had to be in place.
Also 'failed to show leadership' on BTECs - leaving it up to schools
@GavinWilliamson @KateGreenSU Williamson has pledged to get 750k of laptops out by the end of next week (I think he might have said earlier how many have already gone out, but it was 500k before Xmas)
@GavinWilliamson @KateGreenSU Williamson seems to be getting quite emotional in his address to parliament: 'I will give everything to ensure schools are the first things to be open because that is what is best for all children'
@GavinWilliamson @KateGreenSU OK - finally - some details on when we'll get the details:

Ofqual will launch a "detailed" consultation on the plans next week. It will run for two weeks.
@GavinWilliamson @KateGreenSU Williamson says he would like to thank the NEU and Unison for recognising the fact the advice they gave their members on Sunday was incorrect and they've now withdrawn that advice.

More from Education

** Schools have been getting ready for this: a thread **

In many ways, I don't blame folks who tweet things like this. The media coverage of the schools situation in Covid-19 rarely talks about the quiet, day-in-day-out work that schools have been doing these past 9 months. 1/


Instead, the coverage focused on the dramatic, last minute policy announcements by the government, or of dramatic stories of school closures, often accompanied by photos of socially distanced classrooms that those of us in schools this past term know are from a fantasy land. 2/


If that's all you see & hear, it's no wonder that you may not know what has actually been happening in schools to meet the challenges. So, if you'd like a glimpse behind the curtain, then read on. For this is something of what teachers & schools leaders have been up to. 3/

It started last March with trying to meet the challenges of lockdown, being thrown into the deep end, with only a few days' notice, to try to learn to teach remotely during the first lockdown. 4/

https://t.co/S39EWuap3b


I wrote a policy document for our staff the weekend before our training as we anticipated what was to come, a document I shared freely & widely as the education community across the land started to reach out to one another for ideas and support. 5/
https://t.co/m1QsxlPaV4

You May Also Like