The government is looking to spend nearly £4 million on catch-up resources for teachers to use, including diagnostic tests to spot pupils’ learning gaps.
Providers willbe able to bid for £3.9 million to create in-class resources in various formats anddiagnostic tests, hosting resources on a publicly accessible platform and supporting teachers in understanding the knowledge and skills needed by pupils to make up lost learning time.
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“We envisage that the diagnostic tests will be downloadable by teachers and completed between teacher and student,” a published by the Department for Educationtodaysays.
Coronavirus: Resources to help pupils catch up on lost learning
It describes how the diagnostic tests would support teachers in “enabling them to identify next steps and assign a package of resources to help pupils resolve gaps in knowledge and address misconceptions”, although it adds that the range of ideas proposed is not exhaustive and will be subject to further development.
The DfE is holding a market engagement event next Wednesdaythat will be conducted remotely via Microsoft Teams.
It says that the £3.9 million tender is an estimatebased on a potential contract term of 15 months (a three-month implementation period followed by a one-year delivery period).
This week, headteachers stressed thatis important to focus on “qualityof education”over “crowd-pleasing arguments about quantity”when considering plans for Covid catch-up support.
