You may remember that on the 6th of August we wrote to a number of politicians who have responsibilities that include education.
Here’s our original letter;
Well today, a full month later, we have had ONE reply.
This one is from the DfE.
We’ll post each page of the response in the comments below, let us know what YOU think about this response.
Page 1 - mentions disruption but not unnecessary infections due to lack of mitigations
Page 2 - attendance mandatory, doesn’t mention the HT discretion that @NickGibbUK confirmed to @publiclawcentre last year
Point 4 may be of interest to SAGE & @IndependentSage members ‘responded to latest scientific advice and guidance’ really? @allthecitizens
Page 6 - @DrEricDing see U.K. advice regarding lunch times at school! Surface cleaning! It’s okay to mix hundreds of unmasked, unvaccinated students together in dining halls apparently!
Page 7 - does anyone else struggle to believe that the @educationgovuk has a shared goal with @SafeEdForAll_uk? The DfE don’t seem to want to STOP UNNECESSARILY AND KNOWINGLY EXPOSING CHILDREN, SCHOOL STAFF & THEIR FAMILIES TO INCREASED RISK OF INFECTION - THAT’S OUR GOAL
Our conclusion from the @educationgovuk response to our letter 👇
“A child my son shares a couple of classes with (secondary school, yr 8) had finished his 10 day isolation after testing positive and was back in school on Monday…1
My son is the only child wearing a mask in lessons. The teacher was speaking to the child and it came out that although it's 10 days since infection, he is still testing positive but he has been told as he has finished his isolation period he now needs to return to school…2
My son said almost immediately pretty much the whole class ducked under their desks and re-emerged with their masks on.
The teacher sent the child to the office to double check whether he should be in school…3
⭐️ Pleased to inform you that today we had a meeting with @KateGreenSU and @peterkyle to discuss the issues surrounding the lack of scientifically recognised mitigations in U.K. schools.
We are extremely grateful to be given the opportunity to speak to them both together
We provided a list of key points that we felt @UKLabour should be able to support & push forward and are happy to say both @KateGreenSU and @peterkyle were engaged & interested and have confirmed they will take this forward with their work in covid recovery policy discussions.
Here is a list of the action points/suggested actions we discussed and would like taken forward by @UKLabour ;
1. Publicly announce and campaign against punitive non-attendance measures
2. Publicly condemn the removal of CEV status from those who have clinical vulnerabilities
Yes we know the @educationgovuk guidance document is dire and has NO SCIENTIFIC basis.
Following the guidance will not be sufficient defence when a parent or staff member legally challenged your school risk assessment.
So, yep we get it no funding and no support from @educationgovuk means it’s difficult to do WHAT IS NECESSARY to prevent unnecessarily and knowingly exposing your staff, pupils and their families to increased risk of infection.
However, crafty @educationgovuk means it’s YOU not THEM that will face the initial legal action.
Whoever has conducted and signed a risk assessment that is found to breach H&S legislation IS LEGALLY LIABLE.