well the education secretary for England
Gavin Williamson has raised the prospect
of finding parents who refuse to send
their children back to school by
September
mr. Williamson said he wanted all age
groups to resume their education in the
autumn teaching union said it was the
wrong approach to threaten parents who
were naturally concerned and needed to
be reassured about the safety of their
children our education editor Bronwyn
Jeffries has the story lessons have
restarted but at a distance by September
this classroom could be full with
a-levels next year they're keen to be
back I would want to be back in
September as long as it's even to be
safe but there's always going to be some
risk missing out it's going to be so hot
so they can get back on track and make
sure we get the grades that we need for
universities but if parents don't send
younger children back there will be
fines school in England compulsory from
September tonight a note of caution from
a senior conservative rather than having
a sledgehammer of a fine in the early
stages especially when understandably
parents are anxious but we should have
at least a record from the schools or
the local councils or even both where
they can check which children are not in
school contact the parents and help them
to make sure the kids go back into
school again schools will want to
persuade parents first to fit everyone
in the government will suggest mixing
within year groups this positive part of
that is you can have more flexibility
within the Year group for your timetable
in and your staffing the negative is if
one person has is tested positive for
kovat in that year group the whole year
group has to go home 14 days and that
could be very disruptive so if for
example we have another spike or we just
have a few cases locally that could mean
a school is then closed quite quickly
for another two or three weeks and
across the almost 30 schools she looks
after teenagers may sit fewer GCSEs
so what's the story with the numbers in
today's funding promise next year there
will be an extra five hundred and sixty
million pounds for a repairs but the
total repair bill for England schools is
around 6.7 billion pounds 1 billion
pounds already planned will be used for
50 rebuilding projects but that follows
a decade of falling spending on school
buildings so this is part of the school
that does require some additional
funding we've got considerable damp in
the ceiling and we have had buckets on
and off here to collect rainwater as
it's coming through the roof this Devon
school has spent years bidding for money
now hoping it will be different this
time what we really would like to see I
think within our schools is some sort of
system whereby schools are audited
according to their need for capital
investment and that money invested where
there is the most urgent need a schools
plan to get them back buildings that are
clean and airy are more important than
ever
Bronwen Jeffries BBC News