UK Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove has re-asserted the Government’s position that schools should reopen from 1st June if certain conditions are met. But this has provoked a mixed response with considerable questions being raised by parents, headteachers, teaching unions, local authorities and health professionals. Many Local Authorities have come forward saying they are not ready, and the British Medical Association and teachers’ unions are urging caution.
While there is no dispute that schools play a fundamental role in the development of children’s emotional, social and intellectual development, it is also important to remember that schools are embedded within communities. The issue of schools reopening during COVID-19 does not just have implications for pupils; it also has knock-on effects for adult staff, parents and the communities and locality from which pupils come from.
That said we recognise the issues facing decision-makers are complex, with the task of balancing numerous, different and sometimes conflicting needs of children, parents, and teaching and school support staff. We understand that there is an imperative for children to return to school for their own wellbeing, and that this will also enable
some
parents to return to work (others will clearly have to remain at home if there is no provision for the children to go to school), but it is also vital that an appropriate level of safety for children, staff and the wider community is ensured.
Using the frameworks of the recently published guidance from UNESCO (new guidelines to provide a road map for safe reopening of schools) and WHO guidance for schools, we have considered (and are continuing to consider) the impact of school opening on children, staff, and the wider community - including parents, grandparents and guardians. Schools do not operate in a social vacuum, and what happens in schools will have wide ramifications for everyone within and outside of schools. It is for this reason that our approach and analysis in this report about whether schools should reopen on 1 June 2020, has to a great extent been led by questions and concerns sent to us by parents, teachers, inspectors, health professionals and ordinary members of the public about the important issue of schools reopening in a few weeks. We were taken aback by the level of knowledge and understanding among ordinary members of the public about the prevalence and transmission rates of COVID-19 in their local communities, and among children and adults, but at the same time it was apparent that the public did not feel that they had sufficient scientific, social, and educational information from the government about the impact of schools reopening on their children, teachers and the wider community.