Unions demand protection for parents and kids as schools closed off

UNIONS demanded protection for parents and pupils following the announcement today that schools across Britain will close from Friday.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told MPs that schools in England would be shut to almost all pupils until further notice, with children of key workers and vulnerable children still receiving support.

Similar announcements had been made earlier  in Scotland and Wales by their devolved administrations. Schools in Northern Ireland also face closure from next week.

SATs, GCSE, A-S and A-level exams are also to be cancelled this year, but the Westminster government claimed that it would ensure young people gain the qualifications they need.

Representative bodies said the clarity for parents and teachers was welcome, with the National Education Union (NEU) quick to welcome the decision.

However, the government could not commit to a timescale for closures, with PM Boris Johnson saying he hoped this would be kept to an “absolute minimum.”

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: “It is better for this to take place in an ordered way than the chaotic pattern of closures that was developing.

“This offers some degree of reassurance to teachers, their students and parents.

“Now, more than anything else, the government needs to concentrate on ensuring that children in food poverty are fed properly — these children are not just those on free school meals.”

The TUC also called on the government to ensure that working parents get paid parental leave when their child’s school or nursery closes.

Currently parents have no statutory right to paid leave to look after their children. The TUC warns that if this issue is not addressed, many families could face an immediate threat of hardship.  

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “As schools and nurseries close, lots of mums and dads will have no choice but to take time off work. They must be guaranteed paid parental leave.  

“We can’t allow the coronavirus outbreak to push families into poverty. No-one should be out of pocket for doing the right thing.”

At an earlier briefing in Edinburgh, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon conceded that closures were now “inevitable,” with a number of schools in Scotland having already closed due to staff shortages.

Exact details of closures north of the border have not yet been announced. A statement is due to be given in Holyrood by Education Secretary John Swinney today.

Ms Sturgeon said that people should not assume that schools would reopen after the Easter break, and she could not promise that they would open before the summer holidays.

The moves were welcomed by opposition leaders. Scottish Labour’s Richard Leonard said that key workers must remain available to continue to work.

He said: “We are in unprecedented times, and the effort of staff across all of our public services to protect individuals, families and communities in this time of crisis cannot be underestimated.

“This is a fast-moving situation and we will only get through this by working together.”

The Scottish Greens have floated plans to continue free school meals, suggesting that council staff from suspended services such as leisure centres, libraries and schools could be used to deliver meals, possibly alongside Royal Mail workers.

The Welsh government said that it too would be closing schools, promising that sites would be repurposed in order to help “people in need” as well as those “involved in the immediate response” to the outbreak.

Wales’s Education Minister Kirsty Williams said: “I can announce we are bringing forward the Easter break for schools in Wales. Schools across Wales will close for statutory provision of education at the latest on March 20.

“I have been clear up to now that the continuity of education and the wellbeing of our learners has been at the heart of my decision-making. This will always be the case.”

Ms Williams said that the Welsh government was looking into how children who receive free school meals and those with additional learning needs could still be supported.

She said that childcare settings would remain open until the chief medical officer and Public Health Wales advise that they should close, with head teachers and teaching bodies saying that support for vulnerable children and children of key workers were yet to be finalised.