Labour calls for urgent action on ventilation as new data shows
there has been a 67% increase in the number of children out of
school due to Covid in the two weeks up to 30 September.
204,000 children were out of school due to Covid last week,
compared to 122,000 two weeks ago, emphasising the need for
government to do more to keep children learning together in
school.
Labour is calling on the Education Secretary to finally deliver
the ventilation and support schools need to help prevent
transmission within classrooms.
Government modelling shows that even with vaccine rollout 220,000
more school days are expected to be lost before the end of March
due to Covid-19. Data from Cambridge University shows that
increasing ventilation could halve the risk of Covid spreading
from one infectious person to others in classrooms, demonstrating
the urgent need to improve ventilation across schools.
Labour is also urging the Education Secretary to work with
schools and the schools immunisation programme to get the vaccine
out to teenagers as quickly as possible, alongside ensuring
parents and pupils can access readily available information on
the benefits of vaccination.
, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said
“The Government must not allow another year of children’s
learning to descend into chaos with pupils constantly in and out
of school.
“Ministers should have acted months ago to put ventilation
systems in place in our schools and should be doing everything
possible to vaccinate teenagers. Yet once again the Government
has been too slow to act and children are left feeling the
consequences.
“Labour has called for comprehensive Covid mitigations in
schools, alongside setting out an ambitious recovery plan -
extending the school day for new activities, tutoring for all who
need it, mental health support in every school - to deliver the
new opportunities to learn, play and develop every child needs.
It's time the Conservatives match Labours’ ambition for
children's recovery and their futures."
Ends
Notes to editors
- There were 204,000 children out of school due to Covid on 30
September
- 84,000 pupils with a suspected case of coronavirus
- 102,000 pupils with a confirmed case of coronavirus
- 5,000 pupils absent from open settings due to attendance
restrictions being in place to manage an outbreak
- 11,000 pupils absent from open settings due to isolation for
other reasons
- 2,000 pupils were absent as a result of school closures due
to COVID-related reasons
Government attendance
data
- This is an increase of 67% on the last data released on 21
Sept showing 122,000 children were out of school. Government attendance
data
- Government modelling estimates that an additional 220,000
days of school will be missed, even with roll-out of the vaccine
to 12 – 15 yr olds, by March 2022.
See Table 4: scenario results for COVID-19 related absences for
12 to 15 year olds between 18 October 2021 and 31 March 2022
(total absences) Gov.uk
- Data from Cambridge University shows that increasing
ventilation could halve the risk of Covid spreading from one
infectious person to others in classrooms. https://airborne.cam/
- The data shows that if there are five infectious people in a
classroom – the threshold for further action under government
guidance – every other child faces a 28 per cent risk that they
will be infected. Improving ventilation more than halves this
risk, yet the Conservatives are continuing to ignore calls for
action.
This data shows that in a classroom of 55sq metres with standard
ventilation and 1 infectious individual, the risk of getting
infected for every other person is 6.4%.
Increasing ventilation to the ‘typical maximum’ more than halves
this risk to 2.55%.
If there are five infectious individuals with standard
ventilation the risk for of getting infected for every other
person is 28.18%. Increasing ventilation to the ‘typical maximum’
more than halves this risk to 12.11%.
General classroom size: NEU Space requirements in
classrooms
Government guidance sets a threshold for additional action to
mitigate Covid risks when 5 close contacts, or 10% of people
likely to have been in close contact test positive within a 10
day period. (DfE Guidance)
- Labour has set out a comprehensive Children’s Recovery Plan to
help every child bounce back from the pandemic. Labour’s plan
would deliver:
o Small group tutoring for all who need it
o Breakfast clubs and activities for every child
o Quality mental health support for children in every school
o Continued professional development for teachers to support
pupils to catch up on lost learning, and
o Targeted extra investment from early years to further education
to support young people who struggled most with learning in
lockdown
