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Unions support return to school but warn 'Plan B' needed in case of second lockdown

girl in classroom - Getty
girl in classroom - Getty
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter ..
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter ..

Teaching unions have demanded an "alternative strategy" to reopening schools in September, saying they need official guidance on how to proceed if there is a second lockdown.

Headteachers said that while they fully support the "ambition" to get all children back into the classroom at the start of the next academic year, a "Plan B" is urgently needed in case this is not possible.

Their warnings come after a new Lancet study suggested that reopening schools without an improvement in test and trace could result in a second coronavirus wave more than twice the size of the first.

Julie McCulloch, the director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), accused ministers of failing to plan an "alternative strategy" for education if schools are unable to reopen as planned.

"We remain concerned that the Government still lacks a 'Plan B' in the event that this does not prove possible because of infection rates, or if there is a second national shutdown," she said.

"Its guidance envisages only a scenario in which schools close on a local basis in response to infection spikes, and instructs them to have contingency plans in place."

This alternative strategy could, for example, include plans for "blended learning", in which some education takes place at school and some at home.

The UK's largest teachers' union backed ASCL's calls for the Government to publish a back-up plan for September.

Avis Gilmore, the deputy general secretary of the National Education Union, said: ''Children's learning must continue. The Government should have a plan, discussed and developed with education unions, not only for a full return but on helping schools develop blended learning in case some young people need to learn at home across a school or region."

This week, the Lancet published a new study that simulated how coronavirus might spread when schools open at the start of September.

The study, by University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, found that if test and trace was more successful – so that 68 per cent of the contacts of positive cases were traced – the spread could be held in check.

Researchers warned that just 50 per cent of contacts of positive cases are currently reached. They said only one in seven infections in the country is being detected by the programme when its results are compared with surveillance sampling.

Without improvements, the opening of schools and associated changes such as the return of parents to work could result in a second wave this winter that is two to 2.3 times the size of the first, they said.

On Friday, the chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said Britain has "probably reached the limit of opening up society" and would need to make "difficult trade-offs" in order to allow schools to open at the start of next month.

Experts warned that this could mean pubs being closed and households ordered not to mix, either on a national basis or in areas seeing a surge in coronavirus cases.

Simon Clarke, a minister for local government, insisted test and trace is working and said that reopening schools was "vital" (see video below).

"We all know the very pressing reasons why, in terms of children's education and their wider care and mental health as well, that we do indeed get them back in September," he told Times Radio.

"That is a total commitment by the Government and that will happen, and we are being brilliantly supported by heads and teachers."

He said people should not underestimate what test and trace has achieved so far, adding: "184,000 people have now been contacted by the programme and told to self-isolate. That is 184,000 people who might otherwise have been spreading coronavirus.

"Our testing rate is now well above that of comparable countries, even people like Germany, who have been held up as the gold standard."