More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
The leader of Kent County Council has called on the Government to keep schools closed in Thanet, Canterbury, Dover and Folkestone and Hythe.
Cllr Roger Gough (Con) wrote to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson yesterday, urging him to allow primary schools to remain shut.
He tweeted to say he had supported Kent schools in staying open.
But he added: "Yet most schools in #Kent will under government rules have a delayed start; the public health justification for treating 4 Districts (with still high infection rates) differently does not stack up."
The Government announced earlier this week that the majority of secondary school pupils would learn remotely for an extra week, returning to school on Monday, January 18 instead of Monday, January 11 as planned.
Pupils in Years 11 and 13 will return to school on Monday, January 11 and will be provided with remote learning as soon as possible.
Primary school pupils in Thanet, Canterbury, Dover and Folkestone and Hythe are expected to return tomorrow while the other districts in Kent will learn remotely for the first two weeks of term with arrangements being reviewed on Monday, January 18.
"We therefore urge that all Kent primary schools are given the same breathing space before reopening that is currently proposed for schools in some two-thirds of the County."
In Brighton, the council wrote to schools saying they should close but a KCC spokesman stressed KCC does not have any statutory powers to order schools to close.
Cllr Gough's letter, co-signed by cabinet member for education and skills, Cllr Richard Long (Con), read: "We write regarding the proposed reopening of primary schools in four of Kent’s 12 Districts at the start of the coming week.
"Kent County Council has sought to support schools in remaining open, initially to key workers and vulnerable children, and more generally since September.
"We recognise and share the strong arguments about the damaging impact of learning loss and social isolation on children from not being in school, as well as the impact on families.
"It is therefore with considerable regret that we urge that the deferral of primary school opening that government has already decided for much of the County be applied to the remaining four Districts – Thanet, Canterbury, Dover and Folkestone and Hythe – where primary schools are currently scheduled to reopen on Monday.
"We have, in discussion with our Director of Public Health, reviewed current and recent data on infection rates and it is very hard to justify the differential treatment of these particular Districts at this time.
"It is true that some have shown some decline recently, but rates remain very high and in many cases were under strong upward pressure very recently.
"Kent as a whole now has a fairly even spread of high levels of infection.
"We are also very aware of the severe pressures on the NHS in Kent, including the three acute hospitals within the East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust (EKHUFT) that serve the four Districts in question.
"It is possible but far from certain that these pressures are close to a near-term peak but, with a system that has been under severe pressure for many weeks there is an urgent need to ensure that infections and hospital admissions are eased.
"With growing and conflicting pressures on their staff, we know that many heads now face an exceptionally difficult situation."
"We have had a number of representations made to us by head teachers in the County, and in the affected areas, a number of whom have, we know, also contacted their Members of Parliament.
"With growing and conflicting pressures on their staff, we know that many heads now face an exceptionally difficult situation.
"We note further the Department’s decision regarding primary school reopening in London; we appreciate the logic of this decision, but believe that in the light of this, it makes sense to apply the same approach to Kent, which remains a high infection Tier 4 area.
"We therefore urge that all Kent primary schools are given the same breathing space before reopening that is currently proposed for schools in some two-thirds of the County, and that this is communicated to schools and parents as quickly as possible."
The letter is at odds with Prime Minister Boris Johnson's assertion made earlier today that schools in areas where they are allowed to open are safe.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr show on BBC One, he said: "Schools are safe.
"The risk to young people is very, very small indeed. The risk to staff is very small."
North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale, who had said yesterday that what is right for London had to be right for east Kent, today expressed his support for KCC.
He tweeted: "Notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s view, expressed on Television this morning, that “schools are safe” I hold to the opinion that in tier 4 areas of infection a further post-Christmas breathing space for evaluation is needed before primary schools in East Kent re-open.
"The decision taken before the spread of the new strain of Coronavirus was premature and even at this late stage must be re-assessed. I entirely endorse the view expressed by Kent County Council in their letter to the Secretary of State."
County councillor for Margate, Cllr Barry Lewis (Lab), who is a governor at Drapers Mill Primary School in the town, said he was delighted that the Tory KCC administration had agreed with Labour councillors in Thanet that it was wrong to single out east Kent schools as being safe while the rest in Kent are unsafe.
"I hope their lobbying is successful and sense will prevail.
"In the meantime, I would ask them to guarantee that no parent will be threatened with fines if they make a personal decision not to send their children to what they regard as an unsafe environment at their local school."
Commenting on the fact that Thanet had been included among the areas where schools were to remain open, added: "Unfortunately, Boris has followed the crazy algorithm rather than the science."
Analysis by KM political editor Paul Francis
Kent County Council’s eleventh hour call on the government to allow all primary schools to close from next week may not lead to an abrupt capitulation by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.
As one of the largest education authorities in the country, the impact of the Conservative-run council’s intervention is significant but a little diminished by coming so late in the day.
Its decision - or rather its call for a decision to close all primaries - is, according to the letter that has gone to Mr Williamson, based on its assessment of data on infection rates and rising hospital admissions.
The argument is that allowing primaries to open in four areas of the county - Canterbury, Dover, Thanet and Folkestone - while the rest close carries a risk that is not worth taking.
The letter acknowledges there has been a decline in the numbers contracting the infection but points out each of those four areas are still seeing high infection rates.
The question is: who is right? The government has the same statistics and the same data and the Prime Minister has been unequivocal in stating that schools are safe.
Parents are likely to find it perplexing not to say frustrating that there is such a divergence of opinion, especially given the government’s mantra that it is following the science.
Either way, the government is facing a backlash that it might easily have avoided.
