End of isolation for England’s fully-jabbed Covid contacts from Monday; New Zealand to let in vaccinated travellers from low-risk countries next year
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UK schools minister Nick Gibb said it has been an “exceptional year” for young people as they get their GCSE results without having sat exams due to the pandemic.
He said teacher-assessed grades was the “best alternative” to exams when children have had such different experiences of coronavirus.
This is an exceptional year designed to make sure that despite the pandemic and despite the fact that we had to cancel exams, because it wouldn’t have been fair for children, young people to sit exams when they’ve had such different experiences of Covid, the different levels of self-isolation and so on.
So the teacher-assessed system is the best alternative to making sure they can go on to the next phase of their education or careers.
“This has been an exceptional year”
Schools Minister Nick Gibb says it wouldn’t have been fair to sit exams this year but expects students to be able to in 2022, however it will be ‘adjusted to reflect the disruption’ pupils have had to their education.https://t.co/tTcK8v3Ie8 pic.twitter.com/gR90u5sEOL
The UK economy grew by 4.8% in the second quarter of 2021, the Office for National Statistics has said, and rose by 1% in June as lockdown restrictions were eased.
The ONS deputy national statistician for economic statistics, Jonathan Athow, said: “GDP is still around two percentage points below its pre-pandemic peak.”
GDP grew by 1.0% in June 2021 and is now 2.2% below its pre-pandemic peak:
-services grew 1.5% (2.1% below February 2020)
-manufacturing grew 0.2% (2.3% below February 2020)
-construction fell 1.3% (0.3% below February 2020)
➡️ https://t.co/0mlHvgiskA pic.twitter.com/V2sb9zen8t
Commenting on today’s GDP figures, @jathers_ONS said: (1/4) pic.twitter.com/3rO46vfhUD