EVERY effort is being made to ensure that children are receiving their lessons online.

With no date of a return to school in sight, Powys County Council’s  (PCC) Learning and Skills scrutiny committee were told that it was expected that children continue their education online.

Many children have now got used to being taught online but some have not logged in to their lessons at all.

Committee chairman, Cllr Pete Roberts (Liberal Democrat – Llandrindod South) said: “How are you going to engage with those parents to ensure all pupils are getting some form of education?”

Interim chief education officer, Lynette Lovell, said: “It’s clear that some families are struggling, parents are themselves working from home and they have their children there.

“Some will be very well supported, other families may well struggle.

“We are working with those families to try and engage with those parents.”

Schools challenge advisor Hayley Smith told committee members how this is being done.

She said: “We’ve linked educational welfare officers to each hub and they will be supporting schools who have difficulty reaching some families.

“This is being done by telephone, email and writing to them if the initial emails and phone calls don’t work.”

Ms Smith added: “We are also working very closely with children’s services as well to flag up those families we are not hearing from.

“There are some very strong systems in place – but it is challenging and still a work in progress.”

Cllr Roberts hopes to be able to see data at a future meeting showing the education service reaching “nearly all pupils,” on this issue.

“If we aren’t, we want to find out where the problems are,” said Cllr Roberts.

As part of the work to ensure Powys children have access to a computer or tablet device, 800 have been found across the county and given to families that do not have them.

A shipment of 500 4G dongles are also expected to arrive at any time to help give children internet access.

If children are still struggling to get online, hard copy versions of lessons will be given to them.