Summer schools are part of the catch-up programme. The hon. Gentleman has got his point on the record.
In many ways, the announcement on Monday about the return of schools was naming a date. That was the easy part. The challenge now is how we do that in the cautious, irreversible way that I have spoken about. I have reached out and heard from many of my constituency headteachers in the past 48 hours, and I have to say that the negativity and “yes, but what about” drain from some national figures on this subject is strikingly different from talking to my constituency heads, and the practical Winchester good sense I have seen from them. Let me quote one, who said:
“There is certainly a lot of work to be done before the 8th of March, but there is a sense of positivity and relief of our pupils coming back to school”,
and that is typical of what I have heard. I have been interested to hear, as there is much talk during the debate about safety in schools, comments such as:
“I am very happy to report that we have had no covid cases in school since September”,
or,
“no confirmed adult or child covid cases since this all started almost a year ago (not tempting fate).”
That of course will not be the case everywhere. There are terrible tales and terrible examples, but I cannot but be honest and report to the House that that is what I have heard from some of my constituency heads. None of that is to say that we do not have problems—of course we do—and I will just touch on three and then let others speak.
Testing for covid is right up there for my secondaries. Whether we like it or not, the return will be staggered for many in the week of 8 March, prioritising years 10 and 11, but it is the sheer practicality of testing all students three times that is the challenge. As one school said to me, “I’m deploying as many staff as possible to testing while still allowing teaching to take place”. For big secondary schools where the majority arrive by bus, there is an obvious compounding factor that makes extended hours or weekend testing very difficult. We will get it done with that can-do attitude. When I spoke to the Secretary of State this lunchtime, he reminded me that the guidance released yesterday said that schools can test in the week leading up to 8 March, which is next week. I hope that some big secondary schools—the one that gave me that example has 1,200 pupils—will take up the offer of doing that next week.