Unions call for review of key worker list amid complaints over soaring school attendance rates during lockdown

Teaching unions have urged the Government to revisit the guidance on key workers after complaining that too many children are being sent to school during lockdown.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has asked Gavin Williamson to consider scaling back on the number of children able to attend, with reports that some schools have seen up to two thirds of pupils turning up.

Where schools are struggling with capacity, ministers have been asked to consider restricting places to children in two-parent families where both are key workers, as opposed to just one, as well as allowing heads to prioritise children according to need.

ASCL and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) are also calling on the Government to provide guidance on the maximum safe number of children that there should be in school at once.

Separately, the National Education Union has urged ministers to redraw the criteria for “vulnerable” youngsters, having told members to “minimise mixing as much as possible in order to get the virus levels down.”

However, hitting back, Robert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the Commons education committee, said it was “absolutely vital” that “everything is done to welcome these children into school.”

“The key workers are on the frontline, just like teachers and support staff,” he told The Telegraph.

“Everything should be done to welcome these children into school, rather than putting barriers in the way. It’s absolutely vital that their children can be educated and they are not left behind.”

His comments were echoed by a Government source, who ruled out changes and argued it was wrong to suggest more pupils in schools was problematic from a health and safety perspective.

They pointed to fresh guidance issued by the Department for Education on Thursday, which states that “limiting attendance does not suggest that schools and colleges have become significantly less safe for young people."

The document also makes clear that schools should not limit the number of children of key workers on site. It adds that pupils with at least one parent who is a key worker can attend class, even if their parents are working from home.

The row comes after The Daily Telegraph revealed on Wednesday that demand for key worker school places had soared compared to the lockdown in March, with some heads resorting to urging eligible parents to keep their children at home.

The official criteria for vulnerable children has been amended since the last period of school closures, with children who find it have "difficulty engaging with remote learning" - due to lack of study space, wifi or a device to work from - now deemed eligible for a place at school.

Meanwhile, the number of professions classed as “key workers” has also been expanded, with the latest update including thousands of university lecturers as staff.

Geoff Barton, the general secretary of ASCL, warned the changes had “the potential to lead to huge demand”.

He added that the union was receiving reports of some primary schools, where attendance is higher, receiving 160 pupils per today, up from 20 during the first lockdown.

He went on: "This is creating a public health concern as the point of restricted opening is to reduce the number of contacts in order to suppress the risk of coronavirus transmission.

"In fact, we now seem to have ended up in a situation where there are very significant numbers of contacts in some schools."

Echoing his concerns, Paul Whiteman of the NAHT said: "We're increasingly concerned about the sheer demand for key worker and vulnerable pupil places this week.

"Our members are telling us that demand for places is much higher than it was during the first lockdown last spring. We've heard stories of some schools having 50-70 per cent in.

"This could seriously undermine the impact of lockdown measures, and may even run the risk of extending school closures."