MNHQ here: Details on school closures from the Department of Education

[AnnaCMumsnet]

Hello

We have been contacted by the Department of Education about the school closures affecting Primary and Secondary. They say:

"The Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson, has today announced plans to keep early years, schools, colleges and universities open from January.

"The government will now begin applying the contingency framework for education and childcare settings in areas of the country with very high rates of incidence or transmission of the virus, with the first areas to move into the framework listed below. The framework requires secondary schools and colleges to offer face-to-face education to exam years, vulnerable and critical worker children, and remote education to all other students.

"Please note that vocational exams scheduled for the first weeks of January will go ahead as planned."

Return dates for primary and secondary schools & colleges in England

4 Jan – majority of primary schools start returning
4 Jan – secondary schools and colleges to provide remote education for exam years and face to face for education for vulnerable and critical worker children
11 Jan – face to face education for exam years and vulnerable and critical worker children and remote learning for other secondary school and college years
18 Jan – secondary school and college students return for face-to-face education

"In the following local areas under contingency framework, all primary students will receive remote education. The areas will be reviewed on 18 January and any secondary schools in the areas will provide remote learning except for exam years and vulnerable and critical worker children:

London
Barking and Dagenham
Barnet
Bexley
Brent
Bromley
Croydon
Ealing
Enfield
Hammersmith and Fulham
Havering
Hillingdon
Hounslow
Kensington and Chelsea
Merton
Newham
Redbridge
Richmond-Upon-Thames
Southwark
Sutton
Tower Hamlets
Waltham Forest
Wandsworth
Westminster

Essex
Brentwood
Epping Forest
Castle Point
Basildon
Rochford
Harlow
Chelmsford
Braintree
Maldon
Southend on Sea
Thurrock

Kent
Dartford
Gravesham
Sevenoaks
Medway
Ashford
Maidstone
Tonbridge and Malling
Tunbridge Wells
Swale

East Sussex
Hastings
Rother

Buckinghamshire
Milton Keynes

Hertfordshire
Watford
Broxbourne
Hertsmere
Three Rivers

"For more information please go to www.gov.uk/government/news/school-contingency-plans-to-be-implemented-as-cases-rise."

So its not safe for my secondary child to return for 2 weeks (I agree... ) how is it safe for my primary child to return...

How are teachers expected to provide face to face lessons for vulnerable and critical worker children while providing remote lessons for everyone else? I can’t see how that would work in secondary school.

It won’t work and more people will die. How can you expect to re-open primaries with no rotas or mitigation methods.

We are the only country in the world with such a high infection rate and schools fully opened.

Stop dodging the bullet DfE and do something.

My son in y10 has a vocational exam on 11th January. What happens to students like him who aren't y11 or y13 but taking exams?

@TicTacTwo it says:

"Please note that vocational exams scheduled for the first weeks of January will go ahead as planned."

Why is MN a mouthpiece for the government now? Do they think us "mums" couldn't find out the information any other way?

Really disappointed that you are being used as a marketing tool for the DFE.
None of this is new information , surprisingly we are all fairly able to read / watch the news.

This doesn’t feel right.

You didn’t do this for any of the other areas in the UK.

I really hate that mumsnet is becoming a mouthpiece for this. The information is widely available to access, doesn't need to be presented on here in this way

Many people have asked what the position is for remote provision for w/c 4th January for Secondary schools. It wasn't clear from the speeches this afternoon, this has made it clear that schools don't have to provide remote provision for all years in that week, they just have to provide it for the exam years.

@BelleSausage

It won’t work and more people will die. How can you expect to re-open primaries with no rotas or mitigation methods.

We are the only country in the world with such a high infection rate and schools fully opened.

Stop dodging the bullet DfE and do something.

Exactly! DFE you are a disgrace.

Out of interest does any one know how they worked out the London list, Lambeth as far as I can tell has high rates yet is missing from the above list? (Note I don’t live there just wondering).

I assume they've asked mn to post this. Not that they will read any response..

They haven't told us how they figured this.

DfE??

Ah. The first areas to move into is quite telling.

It wasn't clear from his speech if the kids are on holiday or have remote learning instead.

Also thanks DecemberStar. I should have read the post properly.

Well I never saw it but apparently the dofe have been on mumsnet threads?

So perhaps this is to '' reassure '' us just like Dr jenny harries who has also been on mn, reassuring us that whilst it's absolutely neccsary to wear masks in crowds, schools are safe.

I'd like to invite her into my dd secondary or where I work, without her mask... Chat to the students like we do... Laugh with them, sing with them.. Share an ear phone, close the windows when staff walk out the door, and generally hang out with them.. So she can feel reassured about her measures and how they safe it is.

Boris, really got into a tangle tie this afternoon when explaining how the rate of transmission is high but only between families and students inevitably mixed in high risk schools.

Of course the risks across the country are so incredibly high now that only having a few hundred per whatever doesn't seem so bad, does it.?

In the following local areas under contingency framework, all primary students will receive remote education. The areas will be reviewed on 18 January and any secondary schools in the areas will provide remote learning except for exam years and vulnerable and critical worker children:

This bit is unclear to me. Does it suggest that primary students will go back on 18th? or not?

Does it suggest that in the areas listed secondary schools only provide remote learning from 18th?

Sorry if I am being completely stupid - but I sense that we are being shafted in someway here.

I think this is helpful. It provides all the information in one place, on a forum where it can be discussed. Thank you, DfE and MNHQ.

I think it’s good they’ve asked mumsnet to post. It reaches a large target audience. There has been a lot of speculation about what is actually happening from Monday and this confirms it.

@AnnaCMumsnet do you have any avenue to ask them about CEV families and school fines?

Does it confirm it though?

I am still nonethewiser about what is happening in my Tier 4 area with both primary and secondary schools.

Why did the PM lie again and say "schools are safe?"

Stop gaslighting parents. Stop placing children, staff and families in danger.

My child caught Covid at school, along with 20% of his class. This was because you crowbarred children in small classrooms with no masks or ventilation yet told wicked whoppers that children were safe and do not transmit the virus.

Your lies are killing people.

This is really fucking weird. Why is Mumsnet a government mouthpiece now?!