Covid Wales: Secondary schools 'move online' from monday

by BBC News, December 10, 2020

All secondary schools and further education colleges in Wales will move classes online from Monday, the education minister has announced. Kirsty Williams said it was part of a "national effort to reduce transmission of coronavirus". The minister said the decision followed advice from the chief medical officer on the "deteriorating" Covid situation. It means classrooms will close from Friday, a week earlier than planned for the Christmas break.

Ms Williams said it was important to take a "clear, national direction" to ease the pressure from schools, colleges, local councils and parents and carers. "Every day, we are seeing more and more people admitted to hospital with coronavirus symptoms," she added. "The virus is putting our health service under significant and sustained pressure and it is important we all make a contribution to reduce its transmission." She said the advice from Wales' Chief Medical Officer, Dr Frank Atherton, was to implement the online learning plan "as soon as is practicable".

"Having spoken to local education leaders, I am confident that schools and colleges have online learning provision in place," added Ms Williams. "This will also be important in ensuring that students are at home during this time, learning and staying safe. "Critically, and this is very important, children should be at home. "This is not an early Christmas holiday, please do everything you can to minimise your contact with others." The latest data shows the infection rate across Wales is averaging more than 370 cases for 100,000 people, with 17% of tests now coming back positive.

It means the reproduction (R) number in Wales has now reached 1.27, with infections doubling in 11.7 days.

Nick Gibb grilled by education over exam: 7 things we learned

by Schools Week, December 10, 2020

The schools minister Nick Gibb faced questions about exams in 2020 and 2021 when he appeared in front of the Parliamentary education committee this week. The hearing followed the announcement last week of a package of measures that are meant to make exams in 2021 fairer.

Here’s what we learned.

Lack of transparency is to ‘protect civil servants’
Gibb was grilled about the government’s failure to provide the committee with details of key meetings the DfE held with Ofqual in the run-up to the exams fiasco, after Schools Week revealed last month that the request had been snubbed. Halfon said it was “disappointing” that the documents were not forthcoming, despite “assurances” from ministers that the committee would receive them. Ian Mearns went further, saying some committee members were “quite angry”, and ask Gibb what he has to hide.

The schools minister claimed the government wanted to be “as open and transparent as we can be”, and said the committee had been offered “a summary of all the contents of all the different meetings that were relevant”. “The issue for the Department is the protection of civil servants in taking informal notes of meetings and that they can give candid and free advice to ministers without worrying that what they say and write will then be published.”

Cambridge University rejects proposal it be 'respectful' of all views

by The Guardian, December 10, 2020

Proposals requiring Cambridge University staff and students to be “respectful” of differing views under a freedom of speech policy have been overwhelmingly rejected in a vote by its governing body.

The policy will instead emphasise “tolerance” of differing views after an amendment put forward by those concerned about the impact on academic freedom was carried by a landslide majority (86.9%).

Cambridge alumni including Stephen Fry had been among those who had opposed elements of the new policy, which the actor and writer had described as “muddled”.

'I was just so loney': students on mental health impact of Covid

by The Guardian, December 10, 2020

The Guardian spoke to four university students about the impact the pandemic has had on their mental health.

‘I was just so lonely’
Bella Brown, 20, a first year history of art student at UCL, has struggled with mental health problems including anxiety and depression for many years, but said the pandemic had exacerbated these.

“When I moved to London, it was really hard to meet new people,” she said. “My housemates have been going into university three days a week, but I only have an hour-and-a-half in person, so I was just so lonely.”