SCHOOLS in Brighton and Hove are expected to receive £2.5 million government funding to help children catch up after losing teaching time because of the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mainstream schools across Brighton and Hove are likely to receive £80 a pupil from reception age through to year 11 while special schools look likely to receive £240 a child.

The money is due to be paid in three instalments, one in each school term, according to a report to the Brighton and Hove Schools Forum. The forum includes head teachers and governors’ representatives.

The first grant will be based on the most recently available pupil data. The next payment will make use of data from the schools census which is due to be carried out this month.

All mainstream local authority schools should receive the money through Brighton and Hove City Council once it has been received from the government.

Academies and free schools should receive the money directly from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

The government funding is worth £1 billion in all, divided into £650 million to make up for more than a term’s lost teaching time because of the covid-19 lockdown and £350 million for a national tutoring programme.

Money for the tutoring programme will not be passed on directly to schools. Instead, heads will have to apply to the Department for Education.

A report to the Schools Forum said that, in addition to the support package, 15 schools in Brighton and Hove had claimed a total of £179,000 in grants.

They were awarded for schools that stayed open during the holidays for vulnerable children and keyworkers’ children, for providing support to youngsters who received free school meals but who were not attending school – and for extra cleaning.

Some schools also claimed from the government’s furlough scheme to pay staff laid off from breakfast and after-school clubs as well as nurseries.

The total claimed in Brighton and Hove amounted to £333,000.

The schools forum is due to meet “virtually” on Monday 12 October.