‘It’s up to schools to decide if they want to re-open’
EDUCATION chiefs in Kirklees have said individual schools will make the ultimate decision on whether they follow Government advice to partially reopen.
Clr Carole Pattison, the council’s Cabinet Member for Learning, Aspiration and Communities, said the authority was helping schools “navigate the confusion” created by the Government’s timetable, which she said had “raised more questions than answers.”
She added: “We are talking to schools all the time to support them through the transition. We will continue to do that until they re-open, and beyond.
“We will be guided by the evidence and by the individual circumstances of schools. Parents and schools will then be free to make their own choice.”
Clr Pattison will host an online conference with schools this Friday (May 22) to plan for them to re-open safely.
It is designed to hear schools’ views and concerns about the public health challenges tied to the Government’s guidance on re-opening.
Council Leader Clr Shabir Pandor laid out the authority’s approach in blunt terms: “Anyone who cares about the welfare of our children would be planning for their safe return to school.
“That’s exactly what we’re doing here in Kirklees.”
The council’s bullish stance comes just 48 hours after leading Green Clr Andrew Cooper said it should defy Government advice and not send some youngsters back to school from June 1.
And it follows an announcement yesterday from the leader of neighbouring Calderdale Council advising headteachers not to re-open.
Calderdale’s Council Leader Clr Tim Swift said the authority had “major concerns” that the Government’s tests were not currently being met within Calderdale.
Schools in Kirklees are now preparing for pupils to return to the classroom and are putting in place measures to comply with social distancing.
They include smaller class sizes, fewer movements around school, the introduction of a one-way movement system, staggered breaks and lunchtimes, and regular hand washing.
Ian Rimmer, principal of King James’s in Almondbury, told parents that intensive work was going on to welcome back Year 10 students.
But he cautioned: “We have not yet received specific guidance from the Department for Education regarding their expectations of how partial reopening should take place.
“This means that whilst we can make plans, they are very much subject to change.”
Clr Pandor described the projected June 1 date for re-opening schools as “a Government ambition that depends on several factors.”
He added: “We need to know a lot more before we make a judgement.”