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<p>We recognise that all children and young people have had their education disrupted
as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. It is our ambition, shared by schools, to ensure
that all pupils have the chance to make up for this lost education - ensuring that
everyone can reach their potential in the long term.</p><p>We appreciate that this
ambition will be challenging for schools to deliver. That is why we are introducing
a ‘Catch Up Premium’ worth a total of £650 million. This will be available to all
state-funded mainstream and special schools, and alternative provision. Our expectation
is that this funding will be spent on supporting children and young people to catch
up after a period of disruption to their education. Alongside this universal offer,
we have also announced a new £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged
pupils. This will increase access to high quality tuition for disadvantaged and vulnerable
children and young people, helping to accelerate their academic progress and tackling
the attainment gap between them and their peers.</p><p>To support state schools to
provide education online while they were closed to the majority of pupils, the Government
committed over £100 million to boost access to remote education. This includes providing
laptops and tablets and internet access for those who need it most, ensuring every
school that wants it has access to free, expert technical support to get set up on
Google for Education or Microsoft’s Office 365 Education, and offering peer support
from schools and colleges leading the way with the use of education technology.</p><p>The
Department also supported sector-led initiatives such as the Oak National Academy.
This new enterprise was created by 40 teachers from schools across England and produced
at least 180 hours of online lessons per week. There were at least four hours of lessons
per day for secondary, and at least three hours for primary. By 12 July, 4.7 million
unique users had accessed the Oak National Academy website and 16.1 million lessons
had been viewed. Additionally, the BBC developed resources for families as part of
a comprehensive new education package, which is now available on TV, BBC iPlayer and
online at BBC Bitesize.</p>
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