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Schoolchildren in the North East will benefit from two projects aimed at helping them navigate the daunting move from primary to secondary school.

The House of Commons’ education committee focused on mental health on Tuesday during its continued inquiry into the impact of Covid-19 on education and children’s services. Giving evidence were the recently appointed Youth Mental Health Ambassador Dr Alex George, Dr Bernadka Dubicka from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Emma Thomas from YoungMinds, and Catherine Roche from Place2Be.

After another challenging lockdown and period of school closures, a successful return this week has seen students in all year groups come back to the classroom in schools across the region.

Rather than focusing on “catch-up”, should we be taking the opportunity to rethink schools more radically? Professor Michael Jopling and Dr Oliver Harness look at what school leaders in the North East say

Schools Minister Nick Gibb faced questions on exams from MPs this week, in the education select committee’s inquiry into the impact of Covid-19.

While the programme reached over 90% of the targets in some southern regions, the North East came in last with less than 60% of the target number of schools for the region engaging and this lack of engagement has now become a topic of national interest.

Ministers from the Department for Education took questions in the House of Commons on Monday, following on from the announcements the week before on school opening, exams, and catch-up funding.

The House of Commons’ education select committee continued its inquiry into the impact of covid-19 on education on Tuesday, taking evidence from the recently appointed Education Recovery Commissioner, Sir Kevan Collins. Also answering questions were Professor Becky Francis, Chief Executive of the EEF, and Geoff Barton, General Secretary of ASCL.

With increasing pressure on the Government it seems clear that a return to school in some form will take place in March. While we have published a ‘Roadmap to Reopening’ with proposals for a safe return, that is only the start, with plans around longer term recovery and system reform urgently needed.

With keynote speakers including Baroness Berridge, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System, DfE, and National Schools Commissioner Dominic Herrington in attendance, Schools North East launched the Roadmap to Reopening with practical steps to the safe and sustained reopening of schools.

The National Network of Special Schools carried out a survey of members, all School Business Professionals in special or alternative provision settings, at the end of January to help build a picture of what testing looks like in special school settings following the introduction of lateral flow testing.

We are looking at the experiences of our school leaders on the ground through lockdown and the pandemic. This week’s ‘Talking Heads’ comes from Alan Hardie, CEO at Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust.