NEW CLOSURE THREAT TO SCOTS SCHOOLS
Virus fears could see classrooms closed to Scots pupils for weeks more... and possibly up until Easter
PARENTS are bracing for another enforced break from the classroom for their children as schools may be ordered to close until at least the middle of February.
The shutdown could also be extended – even until Easter, sources say.
A meeting to discuss education plans has been brought forward to tomorrow and insiders warn that an extended closure is under consideration.
The Education Recovery Group (ERG) is expected to be told that pupils cannot safely return on January 18, as planned.
But last night, outraged campaigners said the Scottish Government was inflicting ‘huge harm’ on the nation’s children.
Ministers are looking to trial mass testing of pupils in school, and at home, this month.
However, insiders are pessimistic about the prospects of getting all youngsters back into the classroom any time soon.
The situation is likely to be reviewed at regular weekly or fortnightly intervals to see if falling rates of positivity, or a successful mass testing scheme, can lead to a return to normality.
Pupils were supposed to return on Tuesday but now have one week’s extra holiday, and one week of home learning.
But with Covid cases rising, and fears that children are more likely to spread a new, particularly contagious strain of the virus, a January 18 return date looks in serious doubt.
Jim Thewliss, general secretary of School Leaders Scotland, which represents headteachers, said closures beyond January 18, and more remote learning, ‘is what we’re looking at’.
He said yesterday: ‘There is now going to be an ERG meeting tomorrow – it was not supposed to be until the end of the week.
‘I wouldn’t have expected them to bring it forward if they did not have something to say. The agenda is school provision from January 18.’
It is hoped either mass testing of pupils, or earlier vaccination of teachers, could bring an earlier return to the classroom.
However, Nicola Sturgeon has so far not agreed to make teachers a higher priority for the new Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Mr Thewliss said: ‘We will be pushing for testing of kids to be a priority – 16, 17 and 18-year-olds – there continues to be a strong case for that. It would also be perfectly sensible and reasonable to push teachers up the testing and vaccination ladder.’
He said remote learning from home is more likely than blended learning – where children would at least be in the classroom part of the week, in smaller numbers.
Mr Thewliss said: ‘We are in a better place for remote learning than in August, with a greater variety of subjects.’
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS teachers’ union, said a decision on closing schools could be made only once fresh data had been looked at tomorrow.
He added: ‘There has got to be a longer-term plan. I don’t think [infection] numbers are likely to stabilise in a couple of weeks.
‘Some local authorities believe blended learning would be a more manageable situation, rather than on a completely remote platform.
‘Blended learning does not make sense if you’re not doing it for more than a fortnight.’
Some schools in England are due to return this week, although there are growing calls for them all to stay closed.
Campaigners fear another lengthy break from the classroom will be devastating for children.
Parents’ campaign group UsForThem Scotland led calls for a full reopening of schools in the summer, which eventually brought a U-turn by Education Secretary John Swinney. It warned closing schools again would be even worse, as the Scottish Government has already seen the effect the move has on children. UsForThem Scotland organiser Jo Bisset said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon is not planning for our children to return to school.
You could argue that, in lockdown one, the huge harms caused by school closures were not understood – but they can’t say that now.
‘The damage they are going to do to our children in the next eight weeks – they can’t make that choice and claim ignorance, and pretend they have not chosen to harm children. I’m really angry.
‘I don’t want to hear we are all in the same boat. We are not. Nicola Sturgeon is not a child in an abusive household, in a rural location, getting no schooling and no care.’
Ms Sturgeon initially announced plans for an extended school holiday, followed by a week of home learning, shortly before Christmas, as the effects of the new Covid strain became clear.
Since then positive cases have soared and mainland Scotland has plunged into a Level 4 lockdown.
Although teaching unions insist it is not safe yet for their members to return to the classroom, Us For Them Scotland wants the Government to weigh that risk against the risk to pupils of another lengthy absence.
Ms Bisset said: ‘This is a balance of harm argument.’
Scottish Tory education spokes
‘There has got to be a longer-term plan’
‘Nicola Sturgeon is not a child getting no care’
man Jamie Greene said: ‘Decisions to keep schools closed must be based on transparent and solid scientific advice which clearly explains what role, if any, schools play in the spread of the virus.’
He added: ‘The onus is on the SNP to throw the book at this problem, maximise face-to-face learning and reassure parents and teachers that schools are indeed safe places.’
The Scottish Government insisted its ‘planning assumption’ was for a January 18 return.
A spokesman added: ‘We are discussing with local authorities two models of school testing to be trialled in January.
‘The first will involve in-school testing using lateral flow devices, while the second will involve athome sampling for PCR testing.’