Classrooms must remain open five days a week this winter, the schools standards minister has declared despite soaring energy bills.
Will Quince insisted there was already “additional funding” of £4bn this year - which while not devoted to energy bills, would help schools pay their way.
And he rebuffed fears raised earlier this month that some schools could cut to a three- or four-day week, saying they should manage within "existing budgets".
On the idea some schools won’t be able to open five days a week he replied: “I don’t accept that.
“We expect schools to be open five days a week and over 70% of schools are open a 32.5 hour week.
“The IFS indeed have looked at schools and they have said that schools should be able to manage within their existing budgets.
“But I'm alive to the fact that energy costs are increasing at a significant rate.
“We see that in our household bills, in commercial and indeed schools so we keep a very watchful eye.”
Ofgem will tomorrow announce the price cap on domestic energy bills from October 1 - which is expected to soar from less than £1,300 a year last winter to more than £3,600 a year now.
But it could be even worse for schools, as they are not subject to the energy price cap like ordinary households, and non-domestic gas and electricity prices rose 93% in 2021.
Asked what he’d do to help schools that want to cut to a three-day week, Mr Quince told Sky News: “We keep a watchful eye.
“Some schools will be under long term contracts, others will be coming out of those contracts and we’ll keep a watchful eye on it.
“I listen to schools and school leaders up and down the country. And as I say, we'll be working with the new prime minister and the new Secretary of State and Government we'll have in just a couple of weeks time to look at some of the challenges we face.”
Headteachers and school bosses are holding crisis talks over the summer holiday trying to work out how to keep afloat in an impending financial crisis.
Earlier this month Dr Robin Bevan, headmaster of Southend High School for Boys in Essex, told The Sunday Telegraph that “if a four-day week is not already being planned, it will certainly be being considered” by some schools.
Mark Jordan, chief executive of Creative Education Trust, told the newspaper he had heard discussions of a "three-day week" to save cash.
And the chief executive of one of the country's largest academy trusts, who did not want to be named, told the newspaper "shorter school days, fewer after-school clubs and enrichment opportunities and draconian restrictions on energy usage will become a reality for all trusts.”
It comes as students across the country await their GCSE results today after sitting exams for the first time since the pandemic.
Similarly to the pattern with A-level results, published last week, it is expected that grades will drop below last year, but remain above those from 2019.
Labour accused successive Tory governments of "failing our children", pointing to regional gaps in results.
Statistics show that last year fewer than four in 10 students in Knowsley, in the North West, achieved a pass in English and maths - more than 20 percentage points lower than the national average.
The government’s School Standards Minister told GCSE pupils “don’t panic!” about their results.
Mr Quince, who got 6 As and 4 Bs at GCSE but whose A-levels “didn’t go quite so well”, urged pupils to “have a plan B” as grades are expected to fall on last year.
He told Sky News: “ Your grades are important but they don't define you.
“Just have a plan B. I hope all young people up and down the country get the grades they want.
“If you don’t, don’t panic. There are so many options open to you.”
Mr Quince said grades will be lower this year but “that's very much part of part of the plan”.
He told Sky News: “So over the last couple of years, we've had teacher assessed grades, we've gone back for the first time to examinations.
“But we've done that in a staged way. So it's not just back to pure examinations.
“We recognise the fact that young people have faced huge disruption of the past couple of years.
“So there have been adaptations in place and boards have reflected in their marking and grading.”
He also rebuffed calls for more catch-up funding now, saying: “If we need to invest more, of course we will.”
