Good points raised original poster and surprisingly no one to reply so I will give this a go!
How about trying this on for size? I think anyone anywhere in the UK going to in person school (unless you are Isles of Scilly or a locality with very little mutating Covid) is super brave. The teachers are under appreciated! And what happens if they all fall ill (too)?
Obviously in a medical pandemic war we need healthcare, food, energy, technology, logistics and law and order but for a temporary period perhaps educational is not as critical?
What is the difference (with the mutating extra child contagious strains) between a school with mass gatherings of multiple households than any other indoor or enclosed setting (eg shared mass public transportation)?
Evidently despite linked testing - schools are just another Covid vector for "inadvertent" asymptomatic rapid super spreading and incubation.
The only way current overcrowded schools can be safer (not Covid risk free) is either build or use temporary buildings eg Nightingale NHS concept, or half the normal daily in person schooling intake with alternative days/weeks (staggered days for each year group) etc and importantly mandate all globally adopted best practices with regards to all Covid risk mitigation behaviour including full PPE etc for all no exemptions no excuses and no weak link. Use perplex shielding and possibly clear face coverings to accommodate handicapped members, keep building well ventilated and so called incubation bubbles to a minimum size. Unless real tangible (not superficial) Covid mitigation is implemented and importantly compulsory, accurate and regular asymptomatic test, track, trace and isolate is carried out - then all bets are off!
The Covid weak link commute from each family's Covid free home needs to be addressed seriously too. No more schooling way out of the catchment area and changing modes of public transport across town to get in and out with exposure to endless asymptomatic "inadvertent" Covid tag. Therefore families need to walk to a local school in the open air (social distanced on the pavement) for short distances and short time duration to ensure the daily commute Covid risk is minimised.
Alternative option is only remote blended schooling where Covid can't be transferred without close contact.
After a year and already 70k+ Covid fatalities including a few children and a legal challenge for safety at work in educational settings - perhaps the soft blasé approach is now dated?
The Covidiots like those forever unmasked, non distanced at illegal mass parties and protests outside overwhelmed London hospitals etc etc having no civic duty nor respect for vulnerable in the community and so needs to be not just criminalised and fined when caught but also given end of vaccine and ICU ventilator queue status ie reverse priority as hopefully a deterrent. They believe it's all a hoax anyway so should not feel too concerned while lives and livelihoods are destroyed due (in part) to such behaviour with their lack of self Covid mitigation and selfishness recklessness.
Please note not a ramble but unless the pandemic can be under a little control and not rampantly out of control and without mass two dose vaccination - we need to take things a bit more seriously and think why some advance nations (eg Taiwan and New Zealand etc) have minimal Covid lives and livelihoods destruction. Delayed reactionary political leadership is no substitute for proactive alert national Covid damage limitation management.