COVID: Pupil return delay ‘common sense’ - Peterborough academy trust chief

Al Kingsley said it would have been unsafe for schools to welcome back all pupils on Monday as they had not been given enough guidance and time to prepare for mass testing, which he believes would have led to a large risk of Covid-19 rapidly spreading.

Until yesterday afternoon school leaders were preparing for all primary school pupils to return next week, as well as Year 11 and 13 pupils, with the remaining secondary school pupils heading back into the classroom the week after.

However, on Wednesday education secretary Gavin Williamson said secondary schools will only open on Monday for vulnerable children and the children of key workers (like during the first lockdown), with Year 11 and 13 pupils returning the week after and the remaining pupils from January 18.

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All primary schools - including those in Peterborough - will welcome back all pupils as planned on Monday, apart from in a few parts of the country where the spread of Covid-19 is at its highest.

Reacting to the announcement by Mr Williamson, Mr Kingsley, chair of the Hampton Academies Trust, which runs primary and secondary schools in Peterborough, said: “This is a small step forward and exactly what he was told a month ago was the best strategy.”

Ahead of the announcement, Mr Kingsley had warned that the return of all pupils on Monday would be unsafe due to the limited time to prepare for new guidelines on testing.

He told the Peterborough Telegraph: “It would be wrong to go back next week because it can’t be done safely. Schools will do their best but don’t know how many kids have Covid and will spread it.

“Primary schools are staying open not because they are of less risk but because parents have to take time off to look after kids. It’s for the economy.

“Common sense right now would be to say ‘there’s been a massive spike, we’ll give you two weeks to prepare for testing then do a mixture of in-school teaching and remote learning with 50 per cent in the building’. That would give more of a chance to keep kids safe in bubbles.

“Otherwise they will all be sent home anyway as they will have to self-isolate.”

He added: “Parents understand the challenges faced by schools. We’re finding out things last minute so they are finding things out last minute.

“GCSEs and A-Levels in May seems laughable at the minute. With more disruption is it fair for kids to sit exams when they’ve only been taught some of the syllabus?

“The Government should say it will be centre assessed so we can do in-house testing. That would bring clarity, and at the moment schools needs less last-minute decisions and more time to do things properly.”

On the issue of testing, Mr Kingsley continued: “Schools are waiting on updated guidance on what provision there will be. At the current time there is not much info on who will be delivering testing.

“The biggest challenge is the information coming out is so last minute. Testing we expect will be in a phased way and not involving teachers. That creates questions because in every school you have staff who are vulnerable.

“Schools are struggling with minimising contact, mask wearing, distancing in corridors and guidelines which are not clear yet.”

Speaking on Tuesday, ahead of the Government’s new announcement, director of education for Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council Jonathan Lewis said: “Head teachers and their staff at schools across Peterborough and Cambridgeshire have been working extremely hard throughout the Christmas break to put in place measures to re-open schools safely - at the time and in the ways set out by national Government and with the support of the education teams in both councils.

“I would like to pay a heartfelt tribute to all of those who have given up a considerable amount of time that they could have been spending with their own families to do this.

“This work has included looking at measures that they have been asked to put in place by government for secondary schools to offer regular rapid testing for pupils and staff.

“Schools are not required to implement testing and it is an optional level of assurance that will work alongside existing protective measures such as bubbles, We await final guidance on how the mass testing will operate which we expect in the coming days.

“Planning for this with advice from our public health team is at an advanced stage to be in place by the time schools return.”