Name: Teachers announce boycott of primary school re-opening in England over Covid fears - BBC News
Uploaded: 2021-01-03T18:40:11.000Z
Duration: 5 min 4 s
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the government is coming under intense pressure to scrap plans to reopen primary schools in England on Monday due to fears over the spread of the new variant of the coronavirus.

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K's largest teaching union says its members shouldn't go back to work and head teachers are taking legal action to force the government to explain why it thinks it's safe to reopen primaries outside London on parts of the Southeast.

The Department for Education says schools will implement appropriate safety measures to help mitigate the risk of transmission.

His education correspondent Dan Johnson, Children and teachers were amongst those invited for tests at Charlton's football ground today, one way to help keep the virus out of schools.

We know that our members of our union got sick.

Uh, some of them died over the Christmas period, so there is the concern for our members.

There's also the concern for parents and grand parents, and we don't think it's safe.

We think there should be a period of closure to get those cases down London's primary school Children will all stay off after a U turn ended the patchwork of partial closures.

We're not going back to school and we're gonna have to do home learning.

Not very good, because I want to see my friends, Mom and dad have the challenge of finding child care.

It all seems very last minute, really, and it's all very confusing.

They keep chopping and changing, which makes it very hard to plan.

Teachers are also being tested in Liverpool Tier three, where schools are due to open.

Although scientists advised closures could help reduce the spread of the virus, officials say there's no evidence Schools themselves aren't safe.

I don't feel this your clothes because I feel just a safe in school as I would do anywhere.

I feel the Children have missed a lot of education as it is, the new strangers come out and what we're seeing happening in London, what's hap like people was happening with us.

We had the extra testing brought in earlier on London, didn't now they're closing.

I think we should all be just doing the same.

I don't feel like they should stay closed.

I'll write a lot lower, isn't it on the school that I work at the head teacher there she is amazing and she put everything in place to protect staff here in San Children.

But in some parts of the country, council leaders are now calling for their schools to stay shot.

We'll be approaching at 500 per 100,000 people in the next few days.

And that's following the pattern of the places that have already been told that the primary schools should remain closed.

There's now a legal challenge to see the government's basis for reopening primary schools on Monday in Wales and Northern Ireland, the return was already delayed a week.

There is a lot for the government to consider here.

The rising transmission rates the pressure on the NHS on the demographics in different communities.

It's always said keeping Children off school would be a last resort.

But there is growing pressure to extend these closures beyond London on parts of the Southeast, and teachers are calling for decisions to be made quickly but clearly speak.

A phased return is planned for England secondary schools starting a week on Monday with the hope that mass testing will limit disruption and minimize online learning.

Despite the downsides of that, it's already a reality for many Children on possibly beyond the next two weeks.

Don Johnson, BBC News in South East London Our political correspondent Chris Mason is here with me, Chris, We've had reversals off policy in the pandemic on education before.

Are we likely to see another U turn in this regard?

As you say, Clive President suggests that that is entirely possible.

And there are two factors tonight, which point to the fact that the government isn't entirely in control of what happens next.

Firstly, local authorities, as we heard, they're making their own minds up.

So we saw the decision taken in Brighton Birmingham City Council, saying they will support head teachers who decided to move learning thio remote to being done remotely for the next a couple of weeks.

So, firstly, local authorities secondly, teaching unions they are meeting this weekend.

They are coordinating their actions, the National Education Union, the biggest of them all saying, Well, you know, maybe maybe the solution here is what has to happen is teachers simply have to say, we shouldn't go in.

It's not safe to be working in a conventional classroom setting.

And even if the government is saying as it is, look, our default position is schools should open.

The reality is there are no easy decisions here.

I think we're in for a bumpy few weeks as faras schools opening and then closing and then potentially reopening is concerned.