The British Psychological Society is urging the government to reconsider its emphasis on the idea that children and young people need to ‘catch up’ on their education, as they believe it places unnecessary psychological pressure on them.
The campaign, #BreakfastInTheBudget, is asking people to email their MP before the 2021 Budget is announced, asking the government to extend funding for school breakfasts
The Scottish Government has extended the eligibility of its £22 million in Higher Education and £3 million in Further Education funds to overseas students facing hardship as a result of the pandemic.
An Education Policy Institute report showed that English and Scottish catch-up programmes are poorly targeted, with a lower proportion of funds directed to disadvantaged pupils.
The majority of primary and secondary school pupils will continue with remote learning until at least mid-March, while children in primaries 1 to 3 will return full-time to classrooms from Monday 22 February.
The DfE has delivered more than one million laptops and tablets to the most disadvantaged children across the country, as part of its £400 million scheme to aid remote learning.
Labour has said that the decision not to extend free school meals over February half-term has left 1.4 million children facing a "five-day postcode lottery in food support".
An academic study has shown that there is no evidence that schools are playing a significant role in driving spread of the Covid-19 virus in the community, particularly in primary schools.