Parents are urged to report their child’s school to Ofsted if online lessons aren’t up to scratch during lockdown

Mr Williamson said he wishes to use a form of teacher-assessed grades to award results rather than an algorithm.

He told the Commons: ‘While the details will need to be fine-tuned in consultation with Ofqual, the exam boards and teaching representative organisations.

‘I can confirm now that I wish to use a form of teacher-assessed grades with training and support provided to ensure these are awarded fairly and consistently across the country.’

Ofqual urged students in England to engage ‘as fully’ as they can with learning amid uncertainty.

Simon Lebus, its interim chief regulator, said exams are ‘the fairest way’ of determining what a student knows, but the exams regulator is discussing alternative arrangements with the Department for Education (DfE).

He said: ‘We need to consider a wide range of qualifications – from A-levels and GCSEs to many different vocational and technical qualifications – and the solution won’t be the same for all.’ 

After Mr Williamson’s statement, Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green said: ‘Months ago, the Education Secretary gave a cast iron commitment that exams would go ahead. At that moment, we should have known they were doomed to be cancelled.

‘I wanted exams to go ahead fairly, but I was always clear that there must be a Plan B if that was not possible. For months, there was no sign of any such plan, although the risk exams couldn’t happen has always been entirely predictable.

‘The Secretary of State said he will be providing support to teachers to award grades. Can he tell me when they will receive this support, what form it will take, and confirm that it will be available in all schools?

‘And can he tell me exactly what will be done to ensure that all grades are fair, consistent, and support pupils to move on in their education or employment, including private candidates?’

Boris Johnson continues to have confidence in the Education Secretary and believes he is the best person for the job, Downing Street has said.

The Prime Minister’s press secretary Allegra Stratton told reporters Mr Williamson had produced a ‘full and comprehensive’ package of measures for children who will be educated at home.

‘It’s a huge brief and the Prime Minister believes the Education Secretary is doing it to his utmost ability,’ Ms Stratton said.

Mr Williamson told MPs that schools will be required to produce between three and five hours of online lessons per day while they are closed for up to three months.   

He insisted that ‘our schools have not suddenly become unsafe’, he said they are ’much better prepared than last March’ to implement home-learning. 

He added: ‘We have set out clear, legally binding requirements for schools to provide high-quality remote education. This is mandatory for all state-funded schools and will be enforced by Ofsted.

‘We expect schools to provide between three and five hours teaching a day, depending on the child’s age. If parents feel their child’s school is not providing suitable remote education they should first raise their concerns with the teacher or headteacher and, failing that, report the matter to Ofsted.’ 

He added: ‘I will not apologise for being enthusiastic to ensure that we had been able to be in a position to roll out exams – but we do recognise where we are as a result of this pandemic, we have to take a different course and that is why we’re taking the route we are.’ 

It came as more than 130,000 students were left in limbo after ministers agreed to axe BTEC exams – but left it up to schools and colleges to decide – just hours before the first tests were due to begin across the country. 

Pupils face having grades decided by their teachers again this summer after a furious row erupted last night over the decision to cancel exams for the second year in a row.

MailOnline has been inundated with emails from panicked parents and worried students as the Government was accused of ‘dithering’ and millions of parents began homeschooling their children again until at least February 22. 

But anxious BTEC students are still waiting for confirmation about whether their exams starting today will happen after the Department for Education dodged an outright ban and said ‘schools/colleges can choose to offer exams if they judge it right to’.   

Irate parent Simon Brooks from Nottinghamshire said his daughter Kaitlyn and her friends ‘don’t know whether they are coming or going’, leaving his 17-year-old child in tears last night. 

He told MailOnline: ‘This to me is a ridiculous decision. Of all the exam types in this country BTEC lends itself more to teacher assessed grades as it is continually marked and assessed throughout the year. Why are those doing A levels being afforded the protection from then past year. I am furious and upset for her and her friends’.  

Tony Gordon from Essex said: ‘My daughter was due a year 13 BTEC business exam next week but this has now been brought forward to this Friday with her being advised today, costing her precious revision over the weekend. The teacher even said he has no idea if it will actually go ahead’. 

Meanwhile Ucas chief Clare Marchant said the decision to extend university applications by two weeks had gone down ‘overwhelmingly very positively’ with teachers. ‘Teachers are struggling in terms of their own capacity and the amount they have to deal with at the moment, so hopefully it will be welcomed,’ she told BBC Breakfast.

Prospective university students have been given an extra two weeks to complete their applications after most on-campus learning was cancelled, the admissions body said. The Ucas equal consideration deadline has been moved to January 29 at 6pm following the Government’s decision to instruct students to study from home.

Ms Marchant added that, despite the cancellation of A-level exams this year, there were other factors involved in the decision to allocate university places.

‘It’s important to remember that university admissions staff across the four countries (of the UK) look at grades but also the individual, whether it’s through their personal statements or the reference a school or college has made,’ she said. ‘They’ve got a huge amount of data to decide whether or not the student is going to be successful on the course they’ve applied to.’ 

A former chief inspector of education watchdog Ofsted claimed Mr Williamson had ‘got a lot wrong’ while top private schools said the cancellation of exams looked ‘premature’. 

Pupils now face limbo as a new system is drawn up, with the exams regulator Ofqual asked to embark on a consultation before a decision is taken.

The process will mean pupils are likely to be waiting weeks – if not months – for a plan although it is strongly suspected grades allotted by teachers will play a crucial role.

Ex-Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said of Mr Williamson: ‘He has got a lot wrong up to now, hasn’t he?’

Asked if he should resign, Sir Michael replied: ‘He gets other people to resign – permanent secretaries and the head of Ofqual. He has got to take final accountability for what has gone on. Ministers don’t tend to resign for mistakes they have made now in the way that they did before.’

Meanwhile, leading private schools came out strongly against the decision to cancel exams.

Dr Simon Hyde, of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, which represents schools such as Eton and Harrow, said: ‘HMC believes that any decision to cancel all exams in England this summer would be premature. 

‘With the hope of the vaccine on the horizon and the Government now taking stringent lockdown measures, teachers and students can be more confident that public examinations can go ahead safely in June.’

He added: ‘Students in Years 11 and 13 must not have the rug pulled from under their learning. They have suffered much.’

Asked if its position meant all GCSE and A Levels in England were being cancelled, the DfE said it had no further comment.

It comes after Boris Johnson failed to guarantee all pupils in England will be back in school classrooms before the summer holidays. 

In a televised address on Monday announcing England’s third lockdown, Mr Johnson acknowledged shutting schools meant ‘it’s not possible or fair for all exams to go ahead this summer, as normal’.

In a statement, Mr Williamson said: ‘It is now vital that we support our young people at home, including making sure all students are receiving the best possible remote education, and that those students who were due to take exams can still progress to their next stage of education or training.’

The process will mean pupils are likely to be waiting weeks – if not months – for a plan although it is strongly suspected grades allotted by teachers will play a crucial role.

It is believed civil servants are in favour of building on the successful aspects of last year’s grading operation, while steering well clear of ‘mutant algorithms’ or unfairnesses.

This means teachers’ judgments will be at the forefront of grading like in summer 2020 and they are likely to be encouraged to give the benefit of the doubt to teenagers robbed of classroom routine.

In a statement to MPs on Wednesday, Mr Williamson is only expected to float ideas.

Ofqual said: ‘We are considering a number of options to ensure the fairest possible outcome in the circumstances. We will update as soon as we can.’

Robert Halfon, chairman of the Education Select Committee, said Mr Williamson needed to ‘make a policy and stick to it’ while guaranteeing a ‘level playing field’.

He said: ‘Everyone has been marched up the hill and down again so they need to come up with a decision that is clear and understandable and does what it says on the tin.’

The Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, which represents almost 300 leading private schools, said cancelling exams would be ‘premature’.

General Secretary Dr Simon Hyde said: ‘Whilst it is important that the learning loss which some students have experienced is accounted for, and that disadvantaged pupils are not further disadvantaged, HMC believes that any decision to cancel all exams in England this summer would be premature.’

He added: ‘The best way of ensuring fairness is not by cancelling all examinations but by externally moderating assessment in whatever form it takes. We require decisive leadership and a willingness to compromise to bring about such a system. Our students deserve no less.’

Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council, said there is no ‘perfect solution to assessment arrangements for Year 11 and Year 13 pupils given the current course of the virus’.

He acknowledged there is a range of views across the education sector and ‘many students will be disappointed to lose the opportunity to put their learning to the test through traditional exams’.

He added: ‘It is now for the Government and Ofqual to work with education professionals to produce a fair system of assessment that will reward all our young people with the grades they deserve.’

Ex-Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said of Mr Williamson: ‘He has got a lot wrong up to now, hasn’t he?’

Asked if he should resign, Sir Michael replied: ‘He gets other people to resign – permanent secretaries and the head of Ofqual. He has got to take final accountability for what has gone on. Ministers don’t tend to resign for mistakes they have made now in the way that they did before.’

He told Radio 4’s The World At One the Department for Education was not ‘being led well’, insisting: ‘If you talk to headteachers – I talk to them regularly as an ex-head – they lack confidence in leadership that they are receiving.’

Despite facing calls to cancel this month’s Btec exams in light of the lockdown, the Government has left it to school and college leaders to decide whether they want to go ahead with the vocational exam series.

The decision came after ministers faced calls to cancel the January exams.

Elsewhere, the issue of whether exams such as GCSEs will go ahead in Northern Ireland has not been resolved.

It is understood the Education Minister will bring proposals to the Executive on Wednesday.

Earlier the Prime Minister told a Downing Street press conference that he is ‘optimistic’ that ‘things really will be very different by the spring’.

But he was unable to give parents, pupils and teachers a firm assurance that face-to-face teaching will be able to resume during the current academic year. 

It followed him announcing last night all schools and colleges across the country have to remain closed as part of his new coronavirus lockdown.

The closure of schools is due to last until the middle of February at the earliest when the lockdown is due to be reviewed. 

The massive disruption to learning has forced ministers to tear up plans for A-level and GCSE exams to go ahead broadly as normal in May and June. 

Mr Johnson was told at this evening’s briefing parents want ‘realism’ from the Government on when pupils will be able to move from remote learning back to class.

Asked whether he could tell parents all children will definitely be back in schools before the summer holidays, Mr Johnson replied:  ’I just go back to the answer really I gave to Robert Peston.

‘We think that with the vaccination programme we can do a huge amount to take out of the path of the virus those who are most vulnerable.

‘That clearly offers opportunities to our country to do things differently, to approach the whole issue of non-pharmaceutical interventions very differently.

‘I am full of the same optimism and fundamental hope about the position… that I think that things really will be very different by the spring and that is what I would certainly say to every parent in the land.’

Mr Johnson had earlier been asked by Mr Peston from ITV how confident he is that lockdown measures will be lifted by March.

The PM said: ’I think it all depends. Our ability to come out of the lockdown measures, our ability to get through this fast, depends on a number things.’ 

Mr Johnson cited the roll-out of vaccinations and people following lockdown rules as two factors which will have a significant impact on when the rules can be eased.

The PM decided to announce the closure of schools last night just one day after he had encouraged parents to send their children back to classrooms this week.

The closure plans mean schools and colleges are shut to all but vulnerable children and the children of key workers, with everyone else switching to remote learning.

Shutting schools has plunged the academic year into chaos, with Mr Johnson telling pupils that ‘alternative arrangements’ will have to be made for exams this summer.

The Department for Education and exam regulator Ofqual are now trying to hammer out exactly how pupils will be assessed.

The Government’s official lockdown guidance on exams states: ’In the circumstances, we do not think it is possible for all exams in the summer to go ahead as planned.

‘We will accordingly be working with Ofqual to consult rapidly to put in place alternative arrangements that will allow students to progress fairly.

‘Public exams and vocational assessments scheduled to take place in January will go ahead as planned.’ 

The Government had previously been adamant that exams would be sat in 2021 after the closure of schools meant they had to be scrapped last year and students were instead awarded their predicted grades.

Headteachers have urged Mr Johnson to call off the tests again because ‘wider public health, pupil and staff safety should be prioritised ahead of examinations.’

Furious students and parents claimed it was simply ‘not fair’ to make teenagers sit exams when in-person contact hours are being so severely curtailed.

Kelly Saunders’ daughter Jody is taking her BTEC exams this week.

She said: ‘This year’s kids have missed school from March to July and then been hit and miss since September.

‘My daughter is 17 and in sixth form and she will have missed pretty much a year of the 18 month course she is doing on science, dance and photography. 

‘She had no work set at all in the first lockdown for photography and barely anything for the other two subjects.

‘She has exams next week as they are Btecs and it seems they are still going ahead. But with no preparation. It’s such a mess and she is fuming’.  

Lyndsey Brand’s daughter Isabelle, 18, and son Harry, 15, were both due to take their exams this summer.

Mrs Brand said: ‘We have yet to hear from either school however I expect this is due to the schools not having formulated a plan in response to last night’s news.

‘The provision at both schools for online learning has been fantastic but obviously it is not the same as being in a class room with teacher led sessions.

‘All I hope is that my daughter achieves the grades she needs to move on to the next stage of her education at university and my son achieves the grades he deserves.

‘Hopefully no algorithms or class ranking system. Just a series of tests to establish what level they are working at’.

Shannon Harper, 20, did two years of study at the royal academy of music but took a gap year to study science A-levels to get a place on a chemical engineering course.

She said: ‘This news has come like a wrecking ball to my plans as I am sitting the a levels independently and therefore do not have a school to rely on to accommodate me.

‘I am extremely concerned that many other people in my position will be bottom of the government’s list of consideration.

‘Furthermore, I have paid over £5000 in order to sit these A-levels, a sum that has nearly decimated my savings, notwithstanding all the money I’ve paid in rent and food.’

Debbie Powell, from Shropshire, said: ‘My concern as a parent of a year 11 pupil is how much cancelling GCSE exams will affect him with future opportunities and employment, will he be seen as one of the coronavirus generation and his grades questioned because he never took the exams?

‘I feel so sorry for what will be an educationally damaged generation who may never know what their true potential was’. 

Julia Raned from London wrote:  ‘My son is taking his GCSEs this year and he had his mocks planned in early December. The day before his first mock he was told to self isolate for 14 days.

‘We knew over Christmas he would come back and sit his mocks on the 5th, then his excellent head teacher sent a revised timetable for the mocks starting on the 6th instead of the 5th.

‘We spent all day yesterday together with me helping him revise for his chemistry GCSE mock only for that to be cancelled again last night at 8pm.

Aai’sha Mallik told MailOnline: ’My son is in year 11 and expected to sit his GCSE’s in a few months.

‘Since last year March when the lockdown began he has definitely not progressed as he would have given a normal year.

‘Not only that, the government promised a huge fund would go into tutoring children so they are not falling behind, however not one parent that I have spoken to has told me that they have been offered this.

‘Our kids in year 11 and those sitting A levels should have been first in line to receive the benefits of those funds. Instead we get links to revision books which in turn costs more money’.         

One in FIFTY people now have COVID in the UK – but PM Boris Johnson says 1.3million have now been vaccinated and pledges UK CAN get shots to most vulnerable by mid-February

Boris Johnson tonight revealed that one in 50 of the population of England – around a million people – are infected with coronavirus as he defended his U-turn to plunge the country into lockdown.

The PM told a Downing Street briefing that the scorching spread of the mutant version of the disease meant there was ‘no choice’ about imposing lockdown.

But he insisted the measures can get the situation under control while vaccines are rolled out – revealing that 1.3million people have now had jabs as he dismissed criticism that he is ‘over-promising’ about the most vulnerable categories being covered by mid-February.

Mr Johnson vowed to give the country ‘jab by jab’ information about the crucial process.  

He was flanked at the press conference by medical and science chiefs Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance – whose warnings about the threat of the NHS being overwhelmed sparked the extraordinary U-turn to plunge England into new restrictions.

The podiums once again were adorned with the slogan from the March lockdown – ‘stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’.  

Asked if he thought the target of vaccinating more than 13million people over the next seven weeks was possible, Prof Whitty said it was ‘realistic but not easy’.

But the medic also delivered a grim message that ‘some’ restrictions could still be needed next winter, as the virus was likely to be in regular circulation like flu.    

The scale of the problem was underlined tonight as the UK reported a record 60,916 cases – up nearly 15 per cent on last Tuesday. The tally of deaths was 830, double the number from last week. 

Meanwhile one-in-thirty Londoners – more than 290,000 people – are estimated to have had the virus on January 2, figures from the Office of National Statistics show.

Mr Johnson said the total of 1.3million vaccinated so far included 1.1million people in England, and 650,000 people over the age of 80 – 23 per cent of all that age group in England.

‘That means nearly one-in-four of the most vulnerable groups will have in two to three weeks a significant degree of immunity,’ he said.

‘That is why I believe the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation was right to draw up a programme saving the most lives the fastest.’

Prof Whitty and Sir Patrick confirmed that giving a single dose of the vaccine to more people, rather than the recommended double-dose to half the number, could potentially encourage mutations.

But he said the public health benefits of having more people with some resistance were greater.

‘It is a real worry but quite a small real worry within the system,’ he said.

‘The public health arguments are really strongly in favour.’

Sir Patrick warned that the virus would change anyway and vaccines will need to be altered. 

‘The virus probably will mutate… different vaccines will be needed at that point.’ 

Mr Johnson also struck a gloomy note on schools, refusing to state categorically that they will return before the summer holidays – although he stressed they would be the top priority and things would be ‘different’ by the spring. 

As ministers battle to prevent the brutal squeeze wiping out the hospitality and leisure sectors, Rishi Sunak has unveiled another £4.6billion bailout, offering one-off grants of up to £9,000 to keep venues afloat for the next seven weeks.

The Chancellor also hinted that furlough could be extended beyond April if necessary, even though the government’s borrowing is spiralling out of control. 

But businesses are urging the government to go further by offering VAT and rates relief.

And Tory unrest is growing amid fears that Mr Johnson has raised false hopes that the measures can be lifted by mid-February. 

Michael Gove admitted this morning that there was no ‘certainty’ on the  timeline, as it depends on the government meeting its highly ambitious targets for vaccinating more than 13million of the most vulnerable in society.

The Cabinet Office minister also cautioned that even in the best case scenario not ‘all’ of the curbs will go, as he braced the weary public for a long haul to combat the fast-spreading new variant of coronavirus.

Some Conservative MPs are demanding to know why more preparation was not done for the vaccine drive in the autumn, pointing out that Israel has been more successful despite not having a ‘functional’ government. 

Labour leader Keir Starmer said the crackdown was ‘essential’ and his MPs will support them, effectively guaranteeing their approval in the Commons. But he criticised the government for not changing course sooner and expressed serious doubts about the optimism over distributing vaccines.  

‘I hope he is not over-promising. It’s going to be a struggle and we need to make this work.’

He insisted the government must set up a ‘massive, immediate, and round-the-clock vaccination programme to deliver millions of doses a week by the end of the month in every village and town, every high street and every GP surgery’. 

Just a day after he urged parents to send their children back, Mr Johnson declared in a sombre address from No10 last night that primary and secondary schools will be shut from today, with only the vulnerable and offspring of key workers allowed to go in.

Nurseries can stay open. But university students are being told to stay at home and study remotely, while GCSE and A-level exams will not go ahead as planned. 

Teenagers might not know for weeks how their exams will be replaced, with Ofsted expected to launch a consultation, although government sources said some ‘contingency’ plans had already been considered. 

Under the the new guidance, published overnight, non-essential retail, all hospitality, gyms and swimming pools will be ordered to close – with Rishi Sunak due to lay out another package of support today amid growing fears about the impact on the economy. 

Cafes, bars and restaurants will be allowed to serve takeaway – but in a tightening from the draconian measures last spring, they will not be allowed to serve any alcohol. Vulnerable people are being told to shield where possible.  

The public are once again only allowed to leave home for one of five reasons: to go to work if essential, shop for necessities, exercise – allowed with one other person from another household, care for someone, or to seek medical help or flee threat such as domestic violence.

As England gets used to the idea of a third national lockdown and months more coronavirus chaos: 

• Rishi Sunak announced another £4.6billion of bailouts for lockdown-stricken businesses as economists warned of the ‘colossal’ hit from the surging pandemic;
• The number of Covid-19 patients in hospital in England stood at 26,467 as of 8am on January 5, according to the latest figures – up 21 per cent week on week; 
• Arrivals at UK borders are set to have to show they have tested negative for Covid in the last 72 hours in another major U-turn from government;
• Police have warned that enforcing the lockdown will be difficult with large numbers of officers already off sick or self-isolating;
• Scientists have warned that even the new tough measures might not be enough to contain the mutant coronavirus strain;   
• The PM is set to hold a press conference with medical and science chiefs Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance at 5pm;  
• Streets and city centres were quiet as Britons digested the new restrictions being placed on their lives;
• Hundreds of medical professionals have called for hospital staff to be given higher grade personal protective equipment (PPE) amid growing concern over airborne transmission of coronavirus.