The Government has this week announced step 4 relaxations,
including changes for all education settings. These are in
addition to relaxations on 17 May, which removed the requirement
for masks in classrooms. These decisions were made during a
period of rising case counts and deteriorating levels of
self-testing amongst school-age children.
Today the leaders of the National Education Union have written to
the education secretary, , seeking an
explanation for his policy. It asks reasonable questions, which a
Government in full possession of a persuasive science-based
argument should not hesitate to answer fully.
We all want children to be spending as much time as possible in
school, but the NEU is seriously concerned that if Department for
Education policy is merely based on 'hope for the best' and not
also on planning for something less than the best, then we could
experience even more chaos and disruption next term.
The letter reads:
Dear Secretary of State
As we understand from your statement in the House of Commons the
following changes are happening from September:
- There is a likely requirement for secondary schools to test
all children twice with LFTs before start of school.
- The requirements for bubbles and for isolation of close
contacts of positive cases will be removed.
- NHS test and trace will take over from headteachers the role
of contacting close contacts of children who have a positive
test.
- Contacts of those who are positive will then be advised to
have a PCR test - but should still attend school until they have
a test.
- Schools will operate in September without further mitigations
such as masks, on site mass testing by PHE or widespread
introduction of HEPA filters or CO2 monitors.
We all want to get back to normal as soon as possible. We all
want children not to have to miss face to face education.
It seems that the Government hopes that cases will have peaked by
September - that as double vaccination spreads, and as younger
people develop immunity by being infected - that will mean that
cases begin to fall.
On the other hand many scientists, such as the more than 100
global experts writing to the Lancet today, are worried that this
may turn out not to happen and that we may continue to have high
cases rates in September which will then increase again as
schools open.
These scientists are also concerned that negative health
consequences might be higher than the Government expected.
It is obviously important not to base public policy just on hope,
but also to prepare for other eventualities.
There are questions that we think should be urgently addressed by
ministers.
- Are there any thresholds on case numbers, or hospitalisation
or deaths that mean the DfE would do something different in
schools in September?
- When will the data from the trial of Daily Contact testing be
available to the public and so that other scientists can examine
it? In particular this trial might give some evidence on what
contribution isolation was making to controlling cases and how
much an introduction of Daily Contact testing might make to
controlling cases.
- Is there any part of the DfE plan for the Autumn term that
will change depending on the upcoming decision of JCVI on the
vaccination of secondary children?
- What is your range of projections of the number of children
that will contract Covid under the Government's programme of
relaxations during the Autumn term.
- Under the Government's programme what projections do you have
of the number of children who will experience Long Covid and what
number will have Long Covid that limits their everyday life - and
their ability to fully access school? ONS figures for the 4 week
period leading up to 6 June suggest that more than 30,000 2 to 17
year olds were affected – but we understand from the recent DfE
evidence paper that there are other studies you can draw
estimates from.
- What plans do you have to help improve ventilation in schools
as the Autumn term moves into worse weather – especially in the
light of your own recent evidence document which says “World
Health Organisation guidance has recently been updated to
strongly reflect the role of aerosols in Covid-19 viral
transmission. This emphasizes the importance of ventilation, such
as keeping windows open, and the relative safety of outdoor
settings”- and in the light of the decision of New York city to
provide two HEPA filters for each classroom.
- What projections do you have of what those Long Covid numbers
would there be if:
- isolation were kept, or if,
- it were replaced by Daily Contact Testing,
- if mask wearing was retained,
- if additional ventilation measures such as the HEPA filters
and CO2 monitoring were introduced,
- If class sizes were at the European averages instead of well
above them.
We are asking these questions because we believe that should
cases continue to rise, with negative health consequences in the
Autumn term that you have a plan and can act quickly and
decisively.
We all know the results of dither and delay.
Yours sincerely
Kevin Courtney Mary Bousted
Joint General Secretary Joint General Secretary
