Schools ‘could open on weekends and finish later’ to help kids catch up

Between 95,000 and 135,000 have not returned to school this term, with many staying at home with mental health issues exacerbated by the pandemic.

Schools will soon be given the funding to stay open later and on weekends to help children catch up after the pandemic, reports suggest.

Pupils all over the country have missed out on face-to-face teaching, and all the other benefits of school, for much of the pandemic. As they now return to classes, many have been left behind and need extra help.

This is why ministers will soon announce a half an hour longer school day and extended opening hours, according to The Times.

The plan will be apparently be unveiled when the Government lays out its comprehensive spending review later this month.

The budget is expected to include funding to help schools stay open from 8am to 6pm every day, possibly including Saturdays.

Besides helping the kids who are already at school, this move is also designed to get ‘the lost children of Covid’ back into classes.

Between 95,000 and 135,000 have not returned to school this term, data revealed on Sunday.

The staggering number was discovered by a new task force, headed by former children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, set up to find these ‘ghost children’.

Shockingly, the figure does not include absentees or those isolating and is thought to, at least in part, be made up of many kids who are struggling with their mental health.

Mum Kathryn Simoni, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, told the Times her daughter Bella, now 14, was ‘happy, healthy, outgoing and thriving’ before lockdown.

But when ‘everything that was normal was suddenly taken away’, Bella spent more time on Instagram and became obsessed with dieting, exercise and counting her calories.

She had to be sectioned in February and, although she has now been released, has to work on gradually increasing the number of hours she can attend school – up from one hour a day.

One in six children have a mental health problem now, increasing from one in nine before the pandemic, and many have fallen victim to drug gangs that exploited them while they were vulnerable and not in school.

Ms Longfield told the newspaper: ‘There is a big group of kids not in school, missing out on learning.’

Similarly, Steve Chalk, the founder of England’s biggest academy trust Oasis told The Times: ‘We are not just risking a lost generation. We are watching it happen.’

It is hoped that the Government’s upcoming funding will provide opportunities for children to improve their mental health and stay out of trouble with improved access to sports, arts and extra teaching.

Metro.co.uk has contacted the Department of Education for comment.

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