Features - Page 158

Headteachers across England have warned of "unfair and unfathomable" A-level grades, with an estimated 40 per cent of entries given a lower grade than predicted.

Vocational Skills Solutions is a provider of vocational and bespoke training and development programmes, and like many firms and institutions in the industry, it has been forced to contend with a ceasing of face-to-face training provision during the Covid-19 lockdown period and a move toward online services. However, when speaking on the Leaders Council podcast, VSS managing director Phil Juniper stressed that large scale delivery of online learning cannot be the long-term strategy for the industry, and that the sector must find people-centric solutions.

Much has been made of the fact that getting children back into school in September is a top priority for prime minister Boris Johnson and his government, with many pupils having lost out on a significant amount of contact time with their teachers over 2020. While schools have already been preparing themselves by adhering to safety guidelines and implementing new procedures, it by no means guarantees a smooth transition back to the customary running of education, with a number of issues looming large. Speaking on the Leaders Council podcast, Nigel Attwood, headteacher of Bellfield Junior School in Birmingham, discussed his views about what the education sector and indeed society can expect as schools return.

The UK has officially entered into the first economic recession in over a decade, the worst since records began.

If you can dream it, it’s probably been performed at the Fringe at least once before. There is nothing too bizarre, too loud, too poorly reviewed to feature in the Fringe’s annual programme, scrutinised by those in the know with awe commonly reserved for a religious text. Yet this year, in the latest spate of cancelled culture, there is no such luck.

In 2020, it is estimated that one in four people will play a video game at least once. From Candy Crush to Grand Theft Auto, there is something for everyone. It seems only natural, therefore, that Amazon wants a piece of the action.

Although the ongoing Covid-19 situation has seen demand for goods and services fluctuate in certain industries with income evaporating almost completely for some firms, for payroll and employment practice specialists like Morewood Accounting, the lockdown period has been very much non-stop considering that their services have been vital to the smooth operation of the government’s furlough scheme.

Despite all the years of business experience one may have under their belt, they could be forgiven for initially being taken in by the panic and inertia which ran rife during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic earlier in 2020. Speaking to the Leaders Council, Mark Turner, who set up Dover based medical device laboratory testing service Medical Engineering Technologies [MET], discusses how the early onset of panic was a challenge his business was forced to negotiate. Meanwhile, the government has announced a revamp of the NHS Test and Trace system which will see 6,000 of its 18,000-strong workforce laid off, with the remainder being redeployed to local public health teams in the hope that it will increase success rates.

The UKHospitality trade body has issued a warning that has reverberated throughout the industry, revealing that over three quarters of hospitality businesses in the UK are at risk of insolvency within the next 12 months. In conversation with the Leaders Council, Colin Thompson, owner and co-director of Scotland’s Dornoch Castle Hotel, reflects on how his business has kept itself afloat through the lockdown period, while Steve Hill of independent frozen food storage facility Hemswell Coldstore in Lincolnshire, shares his experiences of how his hospitality sector clients have been affected.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single museum in possession of a good collection, must be in want of funds. Jane Austen’s house is no exception, impacted by the pandemic in much the same way as its larger brothers and sisters.

Official figures indicate the largest decline in employment in over a decade, between the April and June this year.

First minister, Nicola Sturgeon has issued an apology following disputes over examination results in Scotland.

London based online market research agency FlyResearch has been issuing weekly polls to its research panel of over 3000 people throughout the coronavirus lockdown in the UK, in order to project how the outbreak and the implementing of social distancing has been impacting the daily life of UK citizens. This week, managing partner Greg Ward discusses the findings from the nineteenth wave of the Covid-19 tracker survey with the Leaders Council, published on August 5 and sourced from data collected on July 31.

Education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has claimed that there is little evidence of coronavirus transmission in schools, as educational establishments prepare to reopen as early as tomorrow.