Education recovery commissioner says focus should not be on ‘just more lessons’ for pupils

Sir Kevan Collins tells conference he is interested in broadening experience pupils have in education, Zoe Tidman reports

Sir Kevan Collins says the coronavirus pandemic has posed the biggest disruption to education in potentially the ‘history of English mass education’ (Getty Images)

The education recovery tsar has said the focus following the coronavirus lockdown should not be on “just more lessons” for pupils, amid discussions over how to best help children bounce back from disruption caused by the pandemic.

Sir Kevan Collins, who started the role last month, said it was important to make sure children are in the right emotional and physical state before launching into intensive learning.

His comments come after education secretary Gavin Williamson said the government was looking at a “whole range of proposals” to help children catch-up, including a five-term year and longer school days.

Sir Kevan - whose role is to help children recover learning they have lost out on due to the pandemic - said on Thursday: "I think this is about increasing our resources, increasing the funding in order to open up and increase the experiences children have.”

He told an Association for School and College Leaders (ASCL) conference: "I think the school experience rather than just more lessons - but I’m not interested in that, I’m interested in broadening the experience children have in education."

His comments came after the Ofsted chief warned against shortening the summer break without the support of parents.

Read more:

• Tutoring ‘catch-up’ scheme may not be reaching most disadvantaged pupils, spending watchdog warns
• Funding for Covid catch-up teaching not sufficient, says government’s tsar

Meanwhile, experts have warned emphasis on the need to catch-up on lost learning is putting children under “huge” pressure.

On Thursday, Sir Kevan said: "Children have to be ready to learn. You have to be in the emotional state to be ready to learn, you have to be in the physical state.

"So not only do you have to get the order right for every individual child, you have to address these fundamental needs of being ready to learn if everybody’s going to thrive.”

The education recovery commissioner added: "There’s a kind of mutual benefit for everyone, but you have to get the being prepared to learn first before you start ramming in knowledge."

Last month, he said teachers will be asked to increase learning time for children in light of disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Extra hours for sports and music would also need to be considered alongside academic study to tackle the impact of Covid-19 on children, he added.

A group of experts in child development have also called for children to be allowed to play with friends over summer for their mental health instead of doing extra lessons.

All students in England were allowed to return to school from 8 March, after only vulnerable and key worker children had been allowed onsite for the second time during the coronavirus pandemic for around two months.

Addressing delegates at the ASCL virtual conference on Thursday, Sir Kevan said: "This is the biggest disruption to education in a generation, if not in the history of English mass education.”

He added: "115 days on average schools have been closed for some children, although we know schools have been open for others throughout all of this. So we have to be pretty fearless. We have to do some quite bold things, in my view."

Additional reporting by Press Association