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WOKINGHAM Borough Council says that it is working with schools to help them prepare for the new term.
In guidance issued just before the new year, executive member for children’s services Cllr UllaKarin Clark echoed a call from council leader John Halsall last week to do everything to ensure the learning establishments have the best possible support.
On Wednesday, December 30, education secretary Gavin Williamson announced that secondary schools would delay their reopening to January 18 for non-exam year pupils, to give more time for testing regimes to be implemented.
And some primary schools will also have their reopening delayed – all Wokingham borough schools are expected to open as normal from Monday, January 4.
“We know that school is the best place for children, as it is so important for young people to have a routine and not interrupt their schooling,” said Cllr Clark.
“After such a turbulent 2020 we are keen to minimise any further disruption to children’s learning and the social experience they gain from school. We are working with all schools to help them best serve their pupils.
“The council is working with schools by providing advice and guidance to help schools make the best decisions for their pupils, as well as practical support wherever we can as the new term begins.”
On New Year’s Eve, Wokingham Borough Council said that parents would receive details of reopening arrangements directly from their schools. These would include primary schools opening either on Monday or Tuesday, if there was an inset day.
Secondary schools will have home-based learning from Monday, or Tuesday if an inset day, with a staggered return to face-to-face teaching: Years 11 and 13 return from January 11, and all other years returning from January 18.
The pupils will be tested on a weekly basis using lateral flow system, which take a swab from the nose or mouth, with the results available within 30 minutes. If there is a positive test, there will be daily tests within the affected pupil’s bubble.
Children of key workers and vulnerable students will return as normal, regardless of any other closures.
However, this may change at short notice, amid fears that with coronavirus rates continuing to rise in the UK, and an online campaign to force the Government into a U-turn, as it did last night extending the closure of primary schools to all of London boroughs.
Earlier today (Saturday, January 2) the National Education Union held an emergency meeting where it called for the Government to move all learning online or at least two weeks. It adds it is issuing legal advice to its members so they will not work in “an unsafe environment”.
Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said that before Christmas, Covid-19 cases were rising rapidly among school-age children and they could spread the infection into their families and wider community.
“The reports from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine from the December 23, the Sage papers dated December 22 but released on December 31 or the report from Imperial College on December 31 all have the same message – that it will not be possible with the new variant to get R below one without at least a period of school closure,” he said.
“We are calling on Gavin Williamson to actually do what he professes he does – to follow the science and announce, now, that primary schools in England should move learning online, apart from key worker and vulnerable children for at least the first two weeks of January.“
He added: “While we are calling on the Government to take the right steps as a responsible Union we cannot simply agree that the Government’s wrong steps should be implemented.
“That is why we are doing our job as a union by informing our members that they have a legal right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions which are a danger to their health and to the health of their school communities and more generally.”
He pledged that his union wanted to work with the Government to ensure that schools could open safely as soon as possible.
On New Year’s Eve, Wokingham MP Sir John Redwood said that he had been involved in online conference calls with health and education ministers.
“I was assured that computers will continue to be made available for o- line at home learning where needed by qualifying families. Many have been supplied and more will be coming,” he said, adding that ministers wanted exams to go ahead this year
