More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said parents should send children back to primary school tomorrow “in areas where schools are open”.
Appearing on The Andrew Marr Show, the PM said he understood people's frustrations and anxieties but stressed that schools were safe.
Asked whether children should go to school tomorrow, the PM replied: "Absolutely, they should indeed, in areas where schools are open."
He continued: "Schools are safe.
"The risk to young people is very, very small indeed. The risk to staff is very small."
Pressure has been mounting on the Government to keep all school children in England learning from home when the new term starts tomorrow amid fears over the spread of the new strain of Covid-19.
Confirmed cases were higher than 50,000 for the fifth day in a row when UK figures were released on Saturday with a record-high of 57,725 lab-confirmed cases and another 445 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
In Kent, new cases have topped 2,000 every day over the last 10 days, with the total since the pandemic began surpassing the 90,000 mark, according to figures released this weekend.
Primary schools in nine areas of the county will remain shut tomorrow, as well as Bexley and Bromley - part of what the PM described as "exceptional measures" due to the surge in the virus.
But schools in Thanet, Dover, Folkestone and Hythe and Canterbury districts are to reopen despite schools in every other part of the county remaining closed for the first week of the new term.
Gavin Williamson confirmed on Friday that all London primary schools will remain shut to most pupils next week – rather than just those in certain boroughs as set out earlier in the week.
But teaching unions say all schools should close for the next two weeks.
Veteran Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale, who represents North Thanet, said "we need consistency in a schools reopening policy that reflects the spread of the pandemic as it is now".
"What is right for London has to be right for east Kent," he tweeted yesterday.
"Delay the start of term and reassess the needs of both the education and health services. Teachers’ lives matter."
Yesterday evening, the Department for Education said remote learning was “a last resort” and classrooms should reopen “wherever possible” with appropriate safety measures to help mitigate the risk of transmission.
“As we’ve said, we will move to remote education as a last resort, with involvement of public health officials, in areas where infection and pressures on the NHS are highest,” the spokesperson said.
Hundreds of new vaccination sites are due to be up and running this coming week as the NHS ramps up its immunisation programme with the newly-approved Oxford University and AstraZeneca jab.
Some 530,000 doses of the vaccine will be available for rollout across the UK from tomorrow and more than a million patients have already had their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine which was the first to be approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
But Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman said children’s education cannot be “furloughed” for months while vaccinations are rolled out and time absent from the classroom should be kept to an “absolute minimum”, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the vaccine roll-out was “our great hope”, adding: “I want the Government to throw everything it can at this, harnessing the extraordinary talents of our NHS so we can be vaccinating at least two million Brits a week by the end of the month.”
But, writing in the Sunday Mirror, he criticised “a chaotic last minute U-turn on schools”, adding: “Confusion reigns among parents, teachers and pupils over who will be back in school tomorrow and who won’t.”
General secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), Mary Bousted, said schools should stay closed for two weeks to “break the chain” of transmission and prevent the NHS becoming overwhelmed.”
The union, which represents the majority of teachers, has advised its members it is not safe to return to classrooms tomorrow.
NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said the union had started preliminary steps in legal proceedings against the Department for Education, asking it to share its scientific data about safety and transmission rates.
From tomorrow, all London primary schools will be required to provide remote learning for two weeks to all children except vulnerable children and those of key workers, who will be allowed to attend.
Mr Williamson said the January 1 decision to expand closures to the nine remaining London boroughs and the City of London was a “last resort”.
Under the Government’s initial plan, secondary schools and colleges were set to be closed to most pupils for the first two weeks of January, while primary schools within 50 local authorities in the south of England, including 23 London boroughs and 11 Kent districts and boroughs, were also told to keep their doors shut until January 18.
Green Party-led Brighton and Hove City Council has advised primary schools in the Tier 4 area not to return in person, except for vulnerable children and those of key workers, until January 18 despite the Government’s plan for most schools to open in person.
Linda Bauld, a professor in public health at the University of Edinburgh, told the PA news agency that transmission among primary school pupils was “still very limited” while secondary school pupils, particularly older teenagers, can pass on the virus in the same way as adults.
But health professionals have warned of growing pressure on services with Professor Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, telling the BBC current case figures are “fairly mild” compared to what is expected in a week’s time.
