​Council calls on Government to support "summer schools" plan

With the welcome news that children eligible for free school meals will receive food vouchers through the holidays, Bury’s education chiefs have turned their attention to support for pupils who’ve missed out on learning through the COVID-19 crisis.

From Monday, all schools in the borough are anticipated to be open for youngsters in reception and years 1, 6, 10 and 12. Since the outset of the crisis 73 Bury schools have remained open for 714 vulnerable children and children of key workers.

However, with other school years not due back until September at the earliest, Bury Council has been working on a borough-wide summer school programme that will offer opportunities for learning as well as provide vital emotional and practical support.

With the Government's announcement that substantial funding will be available to supplement classroom tuition, the council’s deputy leader Cllr Tamoor Tariq has written to education minister Gavin Williamson.

In the letter Cllr Tariq, the holder of the education and inclusion portfolio in Bury, said the council has been carefully auditing summer school provision already available and identifying where it could be added to within the council’s current means.

He asks that the minister makes Bury ‘a forward and favoured part of any allocation of support’ to help deliver its summer school plan, and wider education and training recovery programme.

Cllr Tariq said: “Our determination is to both sustain our young, and to feed their desire for learning and skills. Our resources, however, are incomplete; and we do need the Government’s help.

“We are setting a robust and achieveable recovery programme for education and training and we would welcome you, or your officials, to visit us in Bury and see aspects of this work.

“We seek to transform the life chances of children from Ramsbottom to Radcliffe; from Prestwich to Unsworth. And in doing so to significantly contribute to our regeneration ambitions for Bury.”

ENDS

Issued: 19 June 2020.