Here you go:
Schools may not reopen in January, Boris Johnson admitted last night amid warnings that the new strain of coronavirus may be spread more easily among pupils.
The government has previously insisted that it will do everything to keep schools open and last week took legal action to stop them closing early for Christmas. Secondary schools are expected to return a week late after Christmas, with the first week used to teach most pupils remotely while setting up a testing system, though head teachers have said the plan is not viable. There are also in-person BTEC exams in the first week of spring term.
However, the prime minister said he would follow the science and constantly review the return to the classroom. He told a Downing Street press conference that he wanted schools to reopen in a staggered manner “if we possibly can”.
He added: “Obviously, the commonsensical thing to do is to follow the path of the epidemic and, as we showed last Saturday, to keep things under constant review.”
Priti Patel, the home secretary, told Sky News: “We want to keep schools open, let me be clear about that, but we will take all the appropriate measures around protecting children, the health of children, and also protecting teachers and the rest of the population as well around schools. But I do want to emphasise the role that mass testing plays.
“Mass testing is up and running across the country as we know, and we have been obviously speaking about mass testing in schools and that is something that is under discussion right now across government for January and when the schools eventually go back.”
Neil Ferguson, whose modelling was instrumental in the decision to implement the first lockdown in March, said that while it was difficult to prove, there were indications that children were more likely to contract the new variant.
Professor Ferguson told Radio 4: “I think what we’ll see in the next two weeks, though, is that while schools are closed, probably, all the variants in circulation at the moment declining.
“But we’ll be tracking very carefully whether we can see differences in that rate of decline and, really, it’s the data that’s being put together now and, unfortunately, over the Christmas break which is going to inform policy measures in January. It’s just too early to tell.”
Last week rates among secondary school pupils reached 2,509 cases per 100,000 people, the highest of any age group. It remains unclear how much the virus is spreading in schools themselves. Government scientific advisers are concerned that teenagers mixing on the way to and from school are spreading the virus to each other, leading to dilemmas about whether shutting schools will prevent this or increase transmission by leading to more unsupervised socialising.
The National Education Union wants schools to teach remotely for two weeks to allow children time to be tested before returning to the classroom.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the government must be ready to change tack if needed.
“The government has announced a staggered start to the spring term in secondary schools and colleges, with some pupils in school and some learning from home during the first week. The intention is that all pupils are then back in school from January 11,” he said.
He said that the ASCL “would hope and expect” the government to keep the plans under review “as the situation continues to develop around coronavirus and the new strain” and not stick rigidly to its plan “come what may”.
The government is also examining whether secondary pupils could be vaccinated to curb spread in schools, the i newspaper reported yesterday. Sage is understood to be modelling the requirements for vaccinations to take place in secondary schools, after hearing that keeping schools open during the November lockdown fuelled the spread in the southeast.
Although no Covid-19 vaccine trials involving children have yet been completed, this month Moderna, a US biotechnology company, began testing a jab on youngsters aged 12 and above.
Separately, a new report has suggested that less than a third of the additional costs facing schools as a result of the pandemic will be covered by the government’s support fund.
Research by the Education Policy Institute revealed that 57 per cent of schools are using their own reserves to cover costs to operate “Covid-safe” environments and about half of schools do not expect to have a balanced budget by the end of the year.
Based on responses to their survey, the EPI estimates that of the combined total of all schools’ Covid-related costs in England, 31 per cent will be reimbursed by the government’s exceptional costs fund. Nearly all schools reported additional spending on PPE, cleaning supplies, signs, digital equipment and handwashing facilities.
Bobbie Mills, a senior researcher at EPI, said: “This is a critical year for pupils as they look to catch up with learning following significant disruption to their education. It is essential that schools are on a stable financial footing with sufficient resources to support their pupils.
“Despite recent increases in school funding, budgets are likely to be under increased pressure as a result of the extra costs incurred this year, with schools serving disadvantaged areas facing some of the biggest challenges. The government needs to look at how it can offer further support to schools through this uncertain period.”
Mr Barton said: “Budgets were already very tight because of years of government underfunding and the position is now even worse. It will inevitably mean schools will need to make more cuts and this will impact on the academic and pastoral support they are able to provide to pupils in the wake of the pandemic.
“The small amount of financial support which the government has made available for extra costs during the emergency has been piecemeal, extremely limited in scope and inadequate.”