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The COVID Diaries – 143 23rd August

The Independent reports:

The Conservative Party used disinformation tactics with a “new level of impunity” during last year’s general election, a report has found.

Researchers from King’s College London warned that the campaign had risked undermining public trust during the coronavirus pandemic.

Their report said Tories had “employed overt disinformation” to secure votes, such as by altering a video of Sir Keir Starmer by and posing as a fact-checker on Twiter during a leaders’ debate.

“Even if some of these tactics are not novel, the impunity with which they were employed appears new, at least in the UK,” it added.

“When found out, Conservative Party representatives were unapologetic for rebranding their Twitter account as a fact-checking site, and for editing video footage of the interview with Sir Keir.”

The COVID Diaries – 142 22nd August

Following the exams fiasco, another crisis is now looming for our schools.

With schools due to reopen in two weeks’ time, headteachers and teaching unions are saying that the government has failed to engage with schools on what would happen in the event of a coronavirus outbreak in schools. “At the moment, there’s no guidance beyond: speak to your local public health officials,” said Geoff Barton, leader of the Association of School and College Leaders.

Barton wants the government to tell schools urgently what their procedures should be if a child or staff member contracts the virus, or if there is a local lockdown. “There needs to be an absolute urgency now,” he said “both so we can reassure parents that this has been thought through and so that our headteachers can put those procedures in place and do some scenario-planning next week, before we start to open. Once again, time is running out.”

The COVID Diaries – 141 18th August

Following education secretary Gavin Williamson’s part in this year’s exam results fiasco, Robert Halfon, the Conservative chair of the education select committee, has said the prime minister must personally lead the back-to-school campaign in order to ensure confidence.

Many people involved in education say that parents and teachers have lost faith in Gavin Williamson’s competence to lead a safe return of pupils to England’s schools in two weeks’ time.

Speculation is mounting that Williamson is only managing to hold on to his job because “he knows where the bodies are buried” from his time as chief whip and won’t go quietly if sacked.

The COVID Diaries – 140 17th August

In a major Government U-turn, A-level and GCSE students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will now have their exams graded as predicted by their teachers instead of a controversial algorithm developed by Ofqual.

Sadly, the change comes too late for many A-level students who received lower grades last Thursday and missed their university offers.

A week ago, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said the algorithm based system was robust and fair. Today he apologised following the major government U-turn, which came after growing fury from pupils and Tory MPs about the handling of the results crisis.

Few people expect Gavin Williamson to be in post much longer.

The COVID Diaries – 139 16th August

Yesterday the English exams regulator Ofqual set out what constituted a “valid” mock exam for students appealing against A-level results in England. This was part of the response to the huge concern about how teachers’ assessed grades have been moderated by an algorithm that has penalised pupils at larger state schools.

But the regulator has now suspended those criteria, and further information will be published “in due course”.So the exams regulator is now reviewing its guidance on how to appeal against A-level and GCSE grades using mock exam results only hours after first publishing it.

One Tory MP described it as a “huge mess” that was “unacceptable”.

The COVID Diaries – 138 15th August

There have been 200 new Covid-19 cases in Ireland on Saturday, the highest daily amount since the beginning of May. The country’s chief medical officer described this as “deeply concerning”.

Ireland has reopened its economy at a slower pace than most European Union countries but there has still been a rise in cases over the last two weeks.

At the same time the French health ministry reported 3,310 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, setting a new post-lockdown high for the fourth day in a row and taking the country’s cumulative cases to 215,521.

The COVD Diaries – 137 14th August

With new quarantine measures to be imposed by the UK on France on Saturday, thousands of holidaymakers have just hours to return to the UK.

The 14-day isolation requirement from 04:00 BST also applies to people arriving from the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks and Caicos, and Aruba.

Eurotunnel trains sold out on Friday and air travellers face steep prices, but some ferries increased capacity

Meanwhile some further lock-down measures are being eased:

• Indoor theatre, music and performance venues will be able to reopen with socially distanced audiences
• Wedding receptions in the form of a sit-down meal for up to 30 guests will be permitted

The COVID Diaries -136   12th August

The Guardian is reporting:

“Headteachers across England last night expressed shock and despair at the human cost of the A-level grades being published today, with pressure mounting on the government to institute a fairer system or face a backlash.

As teachers braced to deliver the news to their students, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, warned of “major turbulence” once grades were revealed. One headteacher in the north-east of England said 26 out of 39 students had their results downgraded compared with the school’s assessments, with one in five having each subject dropped by two or more grades. One able student hoping to go to Durham University had been downgraded in all three of his subjects, with one of his subjects downgraded by two grades. Exam results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: Q&A Read more

No 10 remains nervous that England will see a replay of the widespread protests in Scotland last week, which led to the Scottish government scrapping grades allocated by a statistical model similar to that used in England, and replacing them with grades assessed by teachers.”

The COVID Diaries – 135 11th August

In a worrying development, New Zealand has recorded its first Covid-19 cases in more than 100 days and its biggest city has been placed back in lockdown.

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced there had been four new cases in Auckland and said renewed restrictions would be introduced in the area from midday on Wednesday until midnight on Friday.

Residents will be asked to stay at home and bars and non-essential businesses will be closed.

The COVID Diaries – 134 10th August

In a move that will raise questions over England’s A level results due to be announced on Thursday, Nicola Sturgeon has apologised after accepting the government in Scotland “did not get it right” over exam results.

No exams were sat this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, so the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) ran a system based on teacher assessments.

However, officials then applied a moderation technique which led to about 125,000 estimates being downgraded.

The first minister said this approach was too focused on the “overall system” and not enough on individual pupils.

A similar approach has been used in England.