ARE WE HEADING INTO TIER 4?
REPORTS THAT MINISTERS HAVE AGREED TO DELAY REOPENINGS
PARENTS in Greater Manchester have been left divided following reports ministers have agreed to delay the reopening of secondary schools next week.
Under the revised scheme, Year 11 and 13 exam students would no longer return to school from Monday, January 4, as planned, according to The Times Education Supplement.
The decision was reportedly made by ministers but was last night yet to have Downing Street approval.
Primary school pupils are expected to return to classrooms from January 4 as normal.
Covid-19 testing in senior schools would commence the following week, starting on January 11.
Year 11 and Year 13 pupils would be first in line to return following the tests – with all students returning the week of January 18.
Readers gave their reaction to the news on the M.E.N. Facebook page.
Joanne Mcloughlin said she thought the delay was ‘definitely the right decision.’
“Education is important but I think they at least need to know what there dealing with before they go on half baked let’s see where this new variant is & deploy resources accordingly and then get the kids back in school”, she said.
Gareth Evans said: “They can’t go back to school but can still go to football training and play football at weekends. Seems priorities are wrong somewhere”, he said.
Donna Cunningham expressed frustration at the lack of government transparency, adding: “I want to know when parents will be informed what’s happening! They need to make their mind up”, added one reader.
Lou Tighe voiced concern about the consequences for pupils expected to sit their exams this year, while Parisa Delki said she believed the plan was ‘silly.’ She wrote: “If the children aren’t in the classrooms most will be hanging around the streets.” The plans to delay the staggered return to secondary school follows mounting pressure from scientists advising the government. Experts had urged caution in the decision to reopen classrooms over concerns about the new coronavirus strain spreading from London and the south east. Professor Andrew Hayward, a member of Sage, suggested that allowing pupils to return to schools would mean stricter restrictions in other areas of society. He said: “We’ve had control measures that were previously controlling the old variant are not enough for this variant. And so if we want to control the new variant we are going to need much tighter restrictions.”
Prof Hayward said he thinks schools will have to return ‘maybe a little bit later’ but that it would mean ‘we’re going to have to have increased, strict restrictions in other areas of society to pay for that.’
One headteacher in Greater Manchester suggested a new, devolved approach to how schools are handled during the pandemic.
Glyn Potts, headteacher at John Henry Newman RC College in Oldham, is calling for a more flexible approach to individual schools.
He said: “Like most people I’m desperate to remain open and desperate to have children in schools. But I also have a duty of care to make sure staff are taken care of. Among staff there are teachers who are vulnerable – but not extremely clinical vulnerable.”
Chris Foley, headteacher at St Monica’s RC High School in Prestwich, acknowledged that the decision isn’t an easy one. He said: “[It is] a huge challenge getting the balance right between supporting pupils’ wellbeing and reducing community transmission. We do feel that we want our school to be open, and we are equally concerned by the impact of uncertainty on the pupils.
“We have wonderful Year 11 pupils who just want to get on with their studies, take their exams and then move on to the next stage of their life. The disconnect between national policy and then the delivery of policy directives at a school level has been the most challenging part of this, to be honest.”
PRESSURE is growing for the expansion of the toughest coronavirus restrictions in the face of increasing strain on hospitals in England, where the number of patients has surpassed the April peak of the first wave.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is due to announce any changes to tier areas in a statement to the Commons today.
An adviser to the Government said national coronavirus restrictions were needed to prevent a “catastrophe” amid rising infections, and the head of an organisation representing health trusts said “as much of the country as possible” should go into the harshest Tier 4.
The debate over the reopening of schools after the Christmas break is also continuing, with scientists and school leaders suggesting a delay might be needed amid rising cases. The Government said it is “still planning for a staggered opening of schools” after Christmas, but is keeping the approach under constant review.
Professor Andrew Hayward, of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, said he thought schools would return “maybe a little bit later” and reopening would mean “we’re going to have to have increased, strict restrictions in other areas of society to pay for that”.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed plans for soldiers to offer remote support for testing in schools, but warned it was unlikely to be enough.
Prof Hayward, professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at University College London, said widespread Tier 4 restrictions – or even higher – were likely to be needed as the country moved towards “near-lockdown”. He said: “I think we are entering a very dangerous new phase of the pandemic and we’re going to need decisive, early, national action to prevent a catastrophe in January and February.”
Asked whether a national Tier 4 should be brought in, NHS Providers deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery told BBC Radio Five Live: “I think we need to see, yes, as much of the country as possible in Tier 4.”
NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens warned that doctors and nurses were “back in the eye of the storm”. Figures show there were 20,426 patients in NHS hospitals in England at 8am on Monday, compared with 18,974 on April 12. Sir Simon said: “We are back in the eye of the storm with a second wave of coronavirus sweeping Europe and, indeed, this country.”
Sir Simon said there was a “chink of hope” in various vaccines, with the Oxford/ AstraZeneca jab expected to be approved imminently by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
One senior doctor said some trusts in London and the South East were considering the option of setting up tents outside hospitals to triage patients.
Emergency medicine consultant Simon Walsh said staff were working in “major incident mode” and called on the Government to set out a “coherent plan” for the coming weeks.