Addressing the Commons Education Select Committee yesterday, Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said there is a "near certainty" that unvaccinated children will contract COVID-19. By Will Hazell, iNews.

New analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has concluded that remote learning was "at best a partial substitute" for classroom lessons, with schools educating a higher proportion of disadvantaged pupils particularly affected. By Zoe Tidman, The Independent. Other key findings from the ONS research are summarised in Schools Week.

Speaking to The Guardian, several parents and teachers in England reflect on the impact COVID has had on the academic year so far. By David Batty and Alfie Packham.

According to figures from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the number of children being referred to NHS mental health services has almost doubled since the pandemic. By Laura Donnelly, The Telegraph.

Ministers have reportedly commissioned Ofsted to carry out independent reviews of government tutoring and teachers' professional development reforms. By Freddie Whittaker, Schools Week.

MSPs have been warned that there is a "huge" gap in the knowledge of some pupils in Scotland as a result of the pandemic. By Emma Seith, Tes.

Approximately 250,000 pupils will be supported to tell their own stories as part of a BBC project targeting recovery from the pandemic. BBC News.

Jack Worth, lead economist at the National Foundation for Educational Research, writes in Tes outlining the argument for increasing teacher pay as part of the Government's Spending Review this autumn.

A new report has found that black and minority ethnic girls in England are more than twice as likely to be excluded from school as their white counterparts. By Aamna Mohdin, The Guardian.

A report published by the Higher Education Policy Institute has suggested that pupils should be required to study a humanities subject, mathematics and a foreign language at A-level. The authors of the report claim the move would help tackle a decline in humanities enrolments at universities and boost graduates' employment prospects. By Thomas Kingsley, The Independent.

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