The Times reports on the anger expressed by headteachers in the wake of the Government's last-minute decision to delay the reopening of schools and its expectation that school staff will be able to help carry out mass COVID testing on site next year. By Emma Yeomans, Nicola Woolcock and Rhys Blakely.

iNews features comments made by schools minister Nick Gibb, who has said that 11 million COVID tests will be available for schoolchildren in England on 4 January. By Albert Evans. Mr Gibb has been quoted as saying teachers will not have any role in testing, adding: "They already have their hands full." By Alexandra Topping, The Guardian. An article on Schools Week details the key questions answered by Mr Gibb during a series of broadcast interviews this morning. By Freddie Whittaker.

Heads and teachers have criticised the Government for failing to acknowledge primary schools in its announcement of delays to the start of next term. By Catherine Lough, Tes.

Teachers in Scotland with serious health conditions are to be fast-tracked to receive the coronavirus vaccine, it has been revealed. By Mark McLaughlin, The Times.

Nejat Anbarci and Angel Hernando-Veciana, professors of economics at Durham University, write in The Guardian arguing the pandemic is a chance to rethink education.

Andrea Cowans, the director of student life at Luminate Education Group, writes in Tes suggesting students will need more support than ever next year due to the academic and emotional turmoil experienced during 2020.

Headteachers have told Tes that measures to compensate learning loss in next year's GCSE exams will widen the attainment gap as they benefit advantaged students more. By Dave Speck.

Schools Week reports that outgoing exams chief Dame Glenys Stacey will chair the "2021 committee", a new subcommittee of Ofqual’s board with oversight of next year’s exams. By Samantha Booth, Schools Week. There is a detailed Q&A with Glenys Stacey, which has also been published by Schools Week. By Samantha Booth.

Tes reports the number of upheld appeals for last summer's GCSE and A-level grades rose by more than 500 per cent compared with 2019. By Catherine Lough.

Scottish ministers have been advised by the International Council of Education Advisers to carry out a rolling review of the Curriculum for Excellence to learn lessons from the pandemic. David McCann, The Times.

Sutton High School in southwest London has become the first in the UK to pledge to end discrimination against black hairstyles by adopting the Halo Code, a framework for school uniform policy. By Nicola Woolcock, The Times.

A report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales, which is based on the accounts of 691 victims and survivors, has found the behaviour of people who carry out child sexual abuse in schools is frequently an open secret. By Haroon Siddique, The Guardian.

Dame Rachel de Souza has been officially announced as the new children’s commissioner for England, despite the chair of the education select committee suggesting there was not unanimous support for her appointment. By Zoe Tidman, The Independent.

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