A senior leader in a large multi-academy trust, speaking anonymously to avoid alarming parents, said: “We will be forced to collapse classes. I’m looking at going from 10 sets to eight in maths and English, with a top set of up to 50 or even 60 kids in a big space.”

The leader said they were already having to “double up classes” to cover absences, and this would get worse. One of their secondary academies had 15 staff off last week, with stress-related illness noticeably on the rise.

“The senior team has been teaching 100 kids a time in the hall to relieve pressure on teachers,” he said. “Cover lessons make behaviour worse.”

As well as cutting less popular sixth-form subjects and increasing A-level class sizes – in some cases to twice the optimal number of pupils – he is considering cutting costs by starting the school day late or finishing early once a week.

He said: “If we have another year of this underfunding, by next year I think you’ll have lots of schools going to a four-day week because they can’t afford to teach for five.”

The document, entitled “Opportunity for all: strong schools with great teachers for your child”, did include at least one key measure that could significantly change the education landscape.

The single most impactful announcement was the promise that all schools in England would either be in a multi-academy trust or in the process of joining one by 2030, with a single regulatory approach.

Six years ago, Nicky Morgan was forced to do an embarrassing U-turn on a similar pledge as education secretary after backbench Conservative rebels rejected the idea of already high-performing schools being forced to become academies.

While most of the 3,500 secondary schools in England are now already academies, the great majority of the 16,800 primaries in the sector are not, with only 44% of mainstream schools in England having made the switch. “There is some logic to all schools becoming academies,” said one commentator. “We know the current system is fragmented. It’s logical to bring schools under the same regulatory framework.”

Critics, however, warn that joining an academy trust does not necessarily lead to higher attainment and that making all schools academies will be fraught with difficulties. Zahawi has sweetened the pill by offering local authorities with successful schools the chance to set up their own multiple-academy trusts. Faced with government pressure to academise, it remains to be seen whether schools, unions and local communities still have the energy for a fight.

Otherwise, the white paper covers familiar territory – the new and widely welcomed national register for children not in school, the use of data to modernise and improve tracking of attendance, the £30,000 starting salary for teachers, plus more and better teacher training.

More councils in England are calling on the government to delay the reopening of primary schools amid rising cases of Covid-19.

Local authorities in Wolverhampton, Cumbria and Kent are now asking for a delay to the start of term on Monday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC parents should send their children to schools where they were open.

Some schools announced on Sunday they would remain closed after teachers said they felt it was unsafe to go in.

Mr Johnson told BBC One’s Andrew Marr the risk to children was “very, very low” and the benefit of education was “so huge”.

He added that while school closures would be kept “under constant review”, the government would be “driven by public health considerations and by the massive importance of education”.

Teaching unions have called for remote learning and some head teachers have begun legal action to force ministers to reveal data behind the decision for most schools to reopen.

Ministers have privately warned of a shortage of 6,000 public buses needed to get children to school in England next week for the autumn term and have urged coach companies to fill the gap.

Low passenger numbers during the pandemic have led some bus companies, particularly in rural areas, to reduce services, while social distancing requirements on public transport mean that there will be lower capacity on such services.

Fears that many of the 750,000 children who travel to school by public buses will not be able to make it to classrooms were raised at a meeting chaired by Charlotte Vere, the transport minister.

Candice Mason, of Masons coaches in Tring, Hertfordshire, took part in the meeting last month between the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), which represents operators, and Vere. “She opened the meeting very clearly stating her focus was on home-to-school transport,” Mason said. “Her role was to try and get as many children as possible on to dedicated home-to-school services and she believed there was a shortfall of about 6,000 vehicles.”

There are enough coaches in the UK to deal with demand, according to the CPT, but nobody knows where shortages might hit.

The start of the new school year in September is still mired in uncertainty. Several recent surveys indicate that the majority of parents intend to send their children back to school at the start of term but that a minority remain unsure as to what they will do. The rise of infection rates in the UK also suggests that schools may be disrupted by local lockdowns.

A primary school in Suffolk has had a teepee built in its playing field for pupils to learn while maintaining social distance.

The structure was constructed by staff at an events company whose children attend East Bergholt school. It will likely be used for outdoor lessons and lunch breaks.

New government guidelines have set out ways for schools across England to allow children back from next month.

Headteacher Gill Mitchell told BBC Look East’s Debbie Tubby that children would be “supervised to wash their hands” before entering any new or redesigned classrooms.

“Pupils in the most affluent areas of the country get lower GCSE grades because their state schools cannot attract enough top quality teachers, a study says today.

Researchers from Bristol University claim that national teacher pay scales have “a negative impact on pupil learning” that equates, in some high cost of living areas, to every pupil dropping a grade in one of their GCSEs. The findings will rekindle the row between Education Secretary Michael Gove and teachers’ leaders over the proposed abolition of national bargaining in favour of regional pay.

Teachers’ unions have warned of industrial action if there is any attempt to move away from national pay scales – on the grounds the reforms are likely to lead to wage cuts for teachers in deprived inner city areas, where the cost of living is lower. The School Teachers’ Review Body, an independent body appointed by the Government that reviews pay, is due to report next month. Strikes by teachers could follow if it backs regional pay and its findings are accepted by ministers.

The research by Bristol University, for the Economic and Social Research Council, warned that the current pay system “can cause difficulties in recruitment and retention [in high cost of living areas], especially of high quality workers. High ability teachers might decide to leave the profession, move within the profession to a region where their relative wage is higher or be deterred from entering teaching in the first place.”

This research demonstrates the very real challenge facing many rural schools, where the cost of living is high. It shows that ostensibly affluent areas have their own more complex challenges. It makes me reflect that to just judge a book by its cover in using simple deprivation statistics to model the needs of areas misses a whole a range of complex nuances such as those in this story. But then many Hinterland readers already knew that!!!

In terms of schools it reveals

“Some 24.3% of pupils in state primaries and secondaries are from an ethnic minority, according to figures collected in January and published by the Department for Education (DfE). Five years ago, the proportion was 19.8%. In primary schools, 26.5% of pupils are from an ethnic minority, compared with 21.9% five years ago. In secondaries, 22.2% of pupils are from an ethnic minority, compared with 17.7% five years ago.

The statistics, taken from the School Census and surveys completed by local authorities, show the proportion of pupils whose first language is not English has risen to 16.8% in primary schools, from 13.5% five years ago.In secondaries, the proportion of pupils whose first language is not English is 12.3%, compared with 10.5% five years ago. In the east London boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Newham, the proportion of primary school pupils whose first language is not English is 78% and 74% respectively.

A spokesman from the DfE said that pupils whose mother tongue was not English did not necessarily have poor English skills. “The evidence is clear that once English is established, children catch up and even overtake their peers,” he said.”

I know that in parts of West Yorkshire for example there has been a significant spread of ethnic minorities in rural areas with all the benefits that their diversity brings to communities. I also know that in many other parts of rural England the proportion of ethnnic minorities is far lower than the national average. Is immigration mainly an urban phenomenon still or should we be thinking differently about it is a key dynamic in the evolution of rural communities? Particulary in this places which might be characterised as “metro-rural” on the fringes of our cities?

It explains how “[Rebecca] Ridgway – who runs the adventure holiday company founded by her father, the yachtsman John Ridgway – takes her two children, Hughie, eight, and Molly, 10, to school each morning in an open boat with an outboard motor from their home in Ardmore, in Sutherland.

Once on dry land, the children take a school bus to Kinlochbervie primary school.

“Fifteen years ago, there were 57 pupils. But the fishing industry has declined and, like many rural villages, the picturesque little port has a second-home problem…..This coming year, the primary roll falls to 19, one below the magic number of 20 that guarantees two teachers.”

With my good friend Rob Hindle, I did some work last year looking at the impact of public service cuts on rural communities – one of the key things we concluded was that the level of community commitment to preserving rural facilities was as important as the numbers game or simple financial sums.

I know these factors are really important but I can think of many far less remote places in England where facilities run the risk of closing for the sake of a dose of dynamism akin to that shown by Ms Ridgway.

Let’s hope she succeeds she is setting a positive example to us all! On other things Scottish hope you saw the Rural Services Network articler about our work on rural vulnerability in Scotland we are now working with the Scottish Agricultural College with their financial support to look at vulnerability in terms of individual settlements.

Let me know if you would like to learn more.