Teachers call for schools to be closed during second lockdown

More than 150,000 teaching staff have backed a campaign to close schools and colleges, to avoid prolonging England’s second lockdown. 

It comes as unions branded schools an ‘engine for virus transmission’, with teachers raising health fears about continuing lessons in person.

Scientists, teachers and politicians are divided over whether pupils should remain in classrooms when the country is locked down for a second time on Thursday, while there are also calls for older pupils to wear face masks. The government insists schools should remain open. 

A leading medical figure said this morning that it is clear that there is ‘substantial transmission’ in schools. Andrew Hayward — professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at University College London and a member of the Government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) — told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I think it’s clear that there is substantial transmission within secondary schools.

‘And we are of course needing to prioritise education and we know that children who are infected in schools are very unlikely to have severe consequences.

‘But I think one of the consequences of not closing secondary schools would be that we may need to be in lockdown for longer than we might otherwise have to be.’

His warning comes as well over 150,000 teachers and support staff backed the National Education Union’s (NEU) campaign to close schools and colleges as part of the looming lockdown.

Less than 48 hours after the NEU launched its campaign on Saturday, more than 150,000 teachers and support staff have voiced their support, with over 20,000 writing to their MPs, the union said.

Joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said: ‘The response to our call this weekend for school closures shows that our concern is widely shared.

‘We have seen a fifty-fold increase in infections in secondary schools alone since September. Schools, clearly, are an engine for virus transmission.’

Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that schools should remain – a position echoed yesterday by both the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove. 

But former chief scientific adviser Sir Mark Walport has warned: ‘It’s (the R number) unlikely this time to come down quite as fast as it did during the first lockdown because we have got schools open.’

His comments were echoed by Sir Jeremy Farrar, a member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), who said transmission in secondary schools is ‘high’.

He told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show yesterday that masks should be worn by older secondary pupils.

Meanwhile, the teaching union is also calling for rotas to be introduced in secondary schools and sixth form colleges at the end of the lockdown, which mean students rotate between being in classrooms and being taught at home.

Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: ‘A first step, if it is needed, could be to introduce a rota system in secondary schools.

‘The priority, alongside keeping pupils and staff as safe as possible, must be to keep as much direct teaching going as we can to minimise further disruption to these young people.’

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, added that ‘more transparency’ was needed about the risks to school staff.’

He added: ‘We have made clear to government that we are very concerned about this situation and are calling on them to do much more to demonstrate how and why it is safe for vulnerable staff to attend school and to give clearer guidance to schools on how staff can be protected.’

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We are prioritising children’s and young people’s education and wellbeing, by keeping nurseries, schools, colleges and universities open.

‘The chief and deputy chief medical officers have highlighted the risks of not being in education on their development and mental health.’

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said that schools should be closed to get cases down and to ‘avoid a scenario where large parts of the North West are simply put back in Tier 3 coming out of this’.

He suggested two weeks of closures at the end of November. 

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