the times | Monday July 27 2020 2GM 11News
Demand for places at private schools
has jumped by as much as 30 per cent
because parents of state-educated
children fear that they have fallen be-
hind during lockdown.
There has been an increase in inquir-
ies from “high-aspirational, worried”
parents looking for places, according to
the Independent Schools Association.
In the private sector many pupils
have had to log in for registration dur-
ing lockdown and complete a full day of
live lessons on screen. In April research
suggested that 59 per cent of prep
schools and 72 per cent of private
secondaries provided live online les-
sons with teachers compared with only
3 per cent of state primaries and 6 per
cent of state secondaries.
Diane Reay, emeritus professor of
education at Cambridge University,
said: “Many affluent middle-class fami-
lies sending their children to stateDemand for private school places leaps
schools have become aware and often
concerned about the digital divide
between state and private sector.
“Fleeing to the private sector is an
easier option than campaigning for
state schools to be properly resourced
and equipped, which is what should be
happening. The state sector has always
been the poor relation in education —
around 25 per cent of education spend-
ing goes on the 7 per cent who are pri-
vately educated — but more middle-
class flight will impoverish the sector
more. That’s going to entrench class in-
equalities in education, as the privately
educated move even further away in
terms of their privilege and advantage,”
she told The Guardian.
Campaigners say that it has been eas-
ier for private schools to provide online
learning because they have smaller
classes, fewer vulnerable children and
fewer pupils whose parents are key
workers. Some educationalists say that
pupils forced to spend hours looking atscreens have become “Zoom zombies”.
Rob Lue, who runs a centre for teach-
ing and learning at Harvard University
in the US, says that live online lessons
should be limited to four hours a day for
older pupils and two hours for younger
children otherwise they can suffer from
learning fatigue.
The government says it has invested
more than £100 million to support re-
mote learning. A spokesman for the De-
partment for Education said: “Schools
and teachers have gone to great lengths
over recent months to support and edu-
cate children at home and in the class-
room. Our £1 billion Covid catch-up
fund will help all children to make up for
the impact lost time in school has had
on their education.”
There are reports that most A-level
and GCSE results this year will be de-
cided by statistical modelling rather
than teachers’ predicted grades.
Concerns about teachers inflating
pupils’ grades has led to a decision byOfqual, the exam regulator, not to rely
on them, says The Sunday Telegraph.
Last week Ofqual published research
suggesting that teachers bumped up
predicted A-level marks by 12 per cent
on average and GCSEs by 9 per cent.
Oxford University is poised to accept
scores of pupils from under-performing
schools even if they do worse than ex-
pected in their A levels.
It is the first time that Oxford has ap-
plied such a blanket policy across all its
colleges to discriminate in favour of
bright teenagers from average or poorly
performing schools.
Three straight A grades is the stan-
dard minimum admission threshold for
an Oxford humanities degree but Sam-
ina Khan, director of admissions at Ox-
ford, said students who dropped a grade
— or even two — below their offer
would be admitted as long as dons felt
that they would be happy and success-
ful studying there.
Sathnam Sanghera, page 28Andrew EllsonLockdown led
to happiness
Happiness fell as the pandemic
began but lockdown helped to
restore it, research suggests.
The wellbeing inequality gap
between wealthy professionals and
the unemployed also narrowed
during lockdown, a study by the
Bennett Institute for Public Policy
at Cambridge University found.
Researchers looked at YouGov
weekly mood trackers and Google
searches over a year to track
wellbeing before and during the
pandemic. The proportion of
Britons self-reporting as “happy”
halved in three weeks to 25 per
cent as lockdown began and rose
to 47 per cent at the end of May.
Life satisfaction rose for some of
the most deprived social groups,
while the wealthy experienced
declines. Just before lockdown, 47
per cent of “underemployed” men
reported feeling stressed, but after
two months this had fallen to 30
per cent. For high social status
groups there was a small but
persistent slump in life satisfaction
that lockdown slightly alleviated.
Dr Mark Fabian, of the Bennett
Institute, said: “Lockdowns seem
to improve wellbeing rather than
detract from it.”Fewer have antibodies
The proportion of Britons with
antibodies against Covid-19 is up
to a third lower than was thought,
Public Health England figures
show. Nationally 6.5 per cent of
people are estimated to have them,
with the figure at 4.7 per cent in
the northeast, samples from UK
blood donors show. In London one
person in ten has antibodies
compared with one in six in the
city just after the pandemic’s peak.Call for social care reset
A radical restructuring of social
care is needed, say charities, health
groups and councils. They called
on the government to set a
timetable for reform before MPs
return in September, and said the
changes should be based on
principles such as “sustainable
funding and supporting the care
workforce”. James Jamieson of the
Local Government Association
said “a complete reset” was needed.Diners feeling safe
Ninety-six per cent of people who
have eaten out since restaurants
reopened are satisfied with the
safety measures, according to a
survey by the hospitality monitor
Yumpingo. Fifty-two per cent said
the pandemic did not compromise
their experience. However, the
trade body UK Hospitality said
only 53 per cent of bars and
restaurants had reopened in the
first week since rules were relaxed.Caravan park infections
Twenty-one people have tested
positive at a caravan park in
Shropshire. A testing site has been
set up at a nearby business park,
Shropshire council and Public
Health England said. All residents
at the Craven Arms park have
been told to self-isolate with their
families. Health officials said that
the three initial cases were linked
to an outbreak in Wales and that
cases were likely to rise.coronavirus in brief
Peter Guenzel,
far left, in his
studio, and
Athena Duncan
and Mairead
Curtin of Rebel
Rebel florists.
Above, Uyen Luu,
a food writer and
supper club host,
and George
Williams and Joel
Price making
ravioli for
delivery to
vulnerable
peopleNews
fight to keep the flame alive
from so many self-employed people,
and the key role we play in entertain-
ment — have become the very things
that have left us so vulnerable.”
A report by the Commons digital,
culture, media and sport committee
criticised the government for its lack of
support for the sector. It emphasised
the performing arts, live music and
digital arts.
A footnote, however, stated that it de-
fined creative industries as: advertising
and marketing, architecture, crafts, de-
sign of products, graphics and fashion,
film, TV, radio and photography, IT,
software and computer services, pub-
lishing, museums, galleries and librar-
ies, music, performing and visual arts.
The artists, fashion designers, pho-
tographers, jewellers, florists and other
creative workers at Regents Studios feellike footnotes in the chancellor’s calcu-
lations too. The Crafts Council says
that most of its members made an
annual profit of less than £30,
before Covid-19.
A survey held during lockdown
showed that orders in the sector were
down by 67 per cent with further losses
anticipated, while 60 per cent of artists
had low or no financial reserves.
In the studio next to Mr Ward, Valery
Demure, the owner of a wholesale jew-
ellery business and gallery, said that
turnover halved during the pandemic.
“I have been here 17 years,” she said. “I
have seen this neighbourhood go from
very dodgy to very bohemian and very
trendy. I worry though, so many people
are closing and in trouble.
“It’s wrong that rich people have been
able to put staff on furlough when theyhave multimillion pound houses but
artists, designers, freelancers, photog-
raphers, journalists get nothing. And
the issue of rent has not been managed
well by the government — that is a big
issue for everyone.”
Peter Guenzel, 49, a freelance photo-
grapher on the top floor of Regents
Studios, said that he had sublet space to
a PR agency and sold some equipment.
“The government has been very fo-
cused on the leisure industry with
grants for pubs, hospitality and retail,”
he said. “Why not photographers, art-
ists and other creatives?”
Athena Duncan, 60, and Mairead
Curtin, 57, co-founders of Rebel Rebel, a
floristry business, were putting to-
gether bouquets for online orders. The
duo, whose turnover is 90 per cent
down, have put five members of staff onfurlough: “Our income has gone from
perfectly lovely to virtually nothing.
We used to do all the big events — Chel-
sea [Flower Show], Baftas — and it has
all vanished. I just hope we survive this.”
Out of adversity comes creativity
though. Mr Guenzel has shot a series of
time-lapse pictures of London in lock-
down which he hopes to exhibit, while
Ms Demure is working on some jewel-
lery collaborations. Mr Ward has de-
vised his first perfume and Ms Luu has
had a cookery book commissioned.
She also lent her workshop kitchen to
George Williams, 26, a furloughed chef,
and Joel Price, 30, a furloughed sound
engineer. They have launched a food
delivery service with Olivia Le Anders-
en, 30, an actress and Mr Williams’s
girlfriend. They hope that @fedbyge-
orge will help them to make ends meet.
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE