Green Party Trade Union Group gets behind NEU decision to advocate on-line learning for all but vulnerable and keyworker primary children

 

Vix Lowthian, a secondary school teacher, parent, NEU member and the Green Party's Spokesperson on Education  spoke at a Green Party Trade Union meeting yesterday on 'Covid, Schools and School Workers.' 

At the beginning of the meeting she was completing the signing off of  a press release backing the National Education Union's decision to advise members to not work in full classes due to the rise in Covid cases but instead teach on-line or in the small bubbles formed for chidlren of key workers and vulnerable pupils.

In Brent and the rest of London primary schools are closed to all but vulnerable and key worker children,  and teaching moved on-line. Tonight decisions are still bing made by individual schools, headteacher and local authortiies in other parts of the country.

The video gives a full acount of the issues involved.

 

Green Party backs teachers’ urgent call to close schools and move learning online

 

Vix Lowthian, teacher, NEU member and Green Party Spokesperson on Education

 

The Green Party has backed calls from teaching unions to take steps to protect the safety of staff and students by moving to online learning from Monday in order to reduce the spread of infection of the new coronavirus variant.

The move comes as Green Party-led Brighton & Hove City Council has written to primary schools in the city to advise them to move to remote learning until Monday 18 January.

Green Party education spokesperson Vix Lowthion, a secondary school teacher on the Isle of Wight, said:

It is right that schools should only reopen when it is safe to do so and that cannot be the case with new-variant Covid spreading out of control. We fully support those unions who wish to remind staff of their legal rights not to work in an unsafe environment. Gavin Williamson needs to change his position on the reopening of primary schools urgently.

If the government had provided disadvantaged students with what they needed in terms of laptops and connectivity earlier in the year, it would have made it much easier for all concerned to carry out learning from home now. This oversight must be rectified as soon as possible so that access to education is maintained to the best possible standards while ensuring safety for all.

This is an extremely difficult time for parents, teachers and children and young people and so the government must listen carefully to the experts and trust teachers when they say it is not safe. This crisis is not going away any time soon. Teachers must be supported to deliver planned, high quality and sustainable learning within an environment which prioritises the health of the community.

For once, we hope the government will stick to its own mantra and actually follow the science to protect communities and families across the country.

The Green Party has also repeated its call for all frontline workers, including teachers, to be prioritised for vaccination. 

 

Dawn Butler joins Labour activists and trade unionists in call for the Labour Party to support closure of schools to curb new Covid virus strain

 OPEN LETTER

Dear Kate Green, Wes Streeting, Keir Starmer & Angela Rayner,

 

The Labour Party was founded and exists to represent working people. Millions of people are now living under Tier 3 or 4 restrictions, in areas where coronavirus cases are either high or very high. We understand that the new strain which has been discovered may be more easily transmissible, but we still do not understand enough about the health impact on different age groups.

 

From the start of this crisis, the Government have failed to provide schools with the adequate resources to enable proper physical distancing, so to say they are safe environments is simply not true. It is now widely accepted that the virus is readily transmitted from children to adults. In the absence of mass testing it is impossible to know those children who are healthy from those who are asymptomatic carriers. 

 

Parents, children, teaching assistants, teachers, caretakers, lunchtime assistants, and office staff are looking to us, the Labour Party, to speak up for them, and to hold this Government to account and to press them to do the right thing. We support the position of the National Education Union. We want you to do the same. 

 

Schools should not re-open on the 4th January save for the children of key workers and vulnerable children. This is about the lives and safety of working people, children and the safety of our communities. Nothing should ever come before that. 

 

Do the right thing. 

 

Yours Sincerely,

Laura Pidcock (Labour NEC)

Nadia Jama (Labour NEC)

Mish Rahman (Labour NEC)

Gemma Bolton (Labour NEC)

Yasmine Dar (Labour NEC)

Ellen Morrison (Labour NEC)

Howard Beckett (Labour NEC)

Ian Murray (Labour NEC)

Andi Fox (Labour NEC)

Len McCluskey (General Secretary, Unite the Union)

Dave Ward (General Secretary, CWU)

Matt Wrack (General Secretary, FBU)

Manuel Cortes (General Secretary, TSSA)

Sarah Woolley (General Secretary, BFAWU)

Andy Kerr (Deputy General Secretary, CWU)

Mick Whelan (General Secretary, ASLEF)

Ronan Burtenshaw (Editor, Tribune)

Jamie Driscoll (Mayor, North of Tyne)

Ian Byrne (MP for West Derby)

Jon Trickett (MP for Hemsworth)

Ian Mearns (MP for Gateshead)

Ian Lavery (MP for Wansbeck)

Richard Burgon (MP for Leeds East)

Kate Osborne (MP for Jarrow)

Claudia Webbe (MP for Leicester East)

Bell Ribeiro Addy (MP for Streatham)

Grahame Morris (MP for Easington)

John McDonnell (MP for Hayes & Harlington)

Dawn Butler (MP for Brent Central)

Zarah Sultana (MP for Coventry South)

Jeremy Corbyn (MP for Islington North)

Rebecca Long Bailey (MP for Salford & Eccles)

Apsana Begum (MP for Poplar and Limehouse)

Nadia Whittome (MP for Nottingham East)

Mary Kelly Foy (MP for City of Durham)

Lloyd Russell Moyle (MP for Brighton Kemptown)

Tahir Ali (MP for Birmingham Hall Green)

Paula Barker (MP for Wavertree)

Rachel Hopkins (MP for Luton South)

Olivia Blake (MP for Sheffield Hallam)

John Hendy (House of Lords)

Christine Blower (House of Lords)

Katy Clark (House of Lords)

Councillor Laura Smith

Councillor Liam Lavery

Red Labour

Don’t Leave, Organise (DLO)

Labour Representation Committee (LRC)

Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL)

Momentum

Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD)

Socialist Campaign Group of Labour Councillors

Labour Assembly Against Austerity

NEU calls for all primary schools in England to move learning online & informs members of their legal right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions

 From the National Education Union

The National Education Union is calling upon Government to move learning online in all primary schools including primary special schools in England for at least 2 weeks and issuing advice to all members informing them of their legal rights not to have to work in an unsafe environment.   

Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: 

"The National Education Union knows that the science suggests that to get infection rates down schools should not be open in the first two weeks of January.   

'The reports from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine from the 23rd of December, the Sage papers dated 22nd of December but released on 31st of December or the report from Imperial College on the 31st of December - all have the same message - that it will not be possible with the new variant to get R below one without at least a period of school closure.   

'Cases were rising rapidly amongst school age children at the end of last term and they were the highest rates of any demographics. These children live as part of families and in communities and they can spread the infection into their families and into the wider community.   

'There is scientific concern that the new variant might be more prevalent amongst younger people than the previous variants.   

'We are calling on Gavin Williamson to actually do what he professes he does – to follow the science and announce, now, that primary schools in England should move learning online - apart from key worker and vulnerable children for at least the first two weeks of January.   

'It is not good enough to always be behind the curve, playing catch up with new strains of COVID, seeing hospital admissions rise and cases numbers spiral out of control.   

'Whilst we are calling on the Government to take the right steps as a responsible Union we cannot simply agree that the Government’s wrong steps should be implemented.   

'That is why we are doing our job as a union by informing our members that they have a legal right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions which are a danger to their health and to the health of their school communities and more generally. 

We are informing our members of their legal right to protection to be guided by the science. In order for viral levels in children and in the community to decrease to below R1 primary schools should not open in the first weeks of January. We will be informing our members that they have the right to work in safe conditions which do not endanger their health. This means that they can be available to work from home and to work with key worker and vulnerable children but not available to take full classes from Monday, the 4th of January.   

'We realise that this late notice is a huge inconvenience for parents and for head teachers. The fault, however, is of the Government’s own making and is a result of their inability to understand data, their indecisiveness and their reckless approach to their central duty – to safeguard public health. 

'Education is really, really important but you’re not going to get that education if this virus gets out of control in the community as schools will have to close then for a longer period of time.   

'We do want schools to be open safely as soon as possible. We want to work with Government to achieve that central aim".  

UCU says government plans for a return to in-person teaching 'doomed to fail'

 The University and College Union (UCU) said  just before the New Year  that the government's plans for college and university students to resume in-person learning were "doomed to fail".

The union said after the recent drastic increase in positive cases and hospital admissions, all non-essential in-person teaching must move online at universities and colleges until Easter to help contain the pandemic.  

UCU was responding to a statement by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to the House of Commons on plans for teaching at colleges and universities next term. The union said plans to use lateral flow tests in colleges and universities would not work. It said that university students who do not need to return to their student accommodation must be urged to stay off campus to help contain the virus, and be released from accommodation contracts. It also said ministers must ensure that all students have the ability to learn remotely, so no one is left behind whilst being taught online. 

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: 'We now seem to be hurtling towards a national disaster, with the NHS about to be overwhelmed, but the government is wedded to using lateral flow tests to get students back onto campuses. 

'Keeping learning online until Easter would help lower rates of transmission and ensure a consistent learning experience, but the government continues to be fixated on forcing students and staff into lecture theatres and classrooms.  

'The lateral flow tests, which the government is relying on for a return to in-person teaching in colleges and universities miss an alarming number of people with Covid. Plans to use them to return to in-person teaching seem doomed to fail. One or two tests at the start of term will not be enough, and a regime of continuous testing in every university presents far too many logistical challenges.  

'As it stands, the window for the 'staggered return' of university students is shorter than the window in which they moved to university in September - and that mass movement led to more than 50,000 cases. We will have another term of students being forced in and out of isolation and staff being put at risk while their teaching plans are constantly disrupted.  

'These half measures will not bring the virus under control. Given the escalating rate of Covid cases, the government needs to halt all non-essential in-person teaching at colleges and universities until Easter. It needs to urge all university students who do not need to return to student accommodation to stay where they are, and release them from their accommodation contracts. Ministers must also ensure all students have the resources they need to learn remotely so that no one is left behind.' 

Schools: Green GLA candidate slams 'chaotic and dangerous government' and backs Harrow Council's action

Emma Wallace

 

Reacting to yesterday's events Green Party GLA candidate for Brent and Harrow said:

Thank you to Harrow Council for taking decisive and sensible evidence based action, advising Harrow's primary schools that they can move to online learning from Monday. 

 

The government's decision to leave out Harrow, whilst all surrounding London borough's including Brent, Barnet, Ealing and Hillingdon having been listed as being able to delay their opening, despite having very similar rates of Covid-19 infection, was inconsistent and nonsensical.  

 

To find out that Gavin Williamson has announced a last minute U-turn advising that all primary schools can now close, except for vulnerable and key worker children, reveals once again the complete incompetence that we have now come to expect from this dangerous and chaotic government.  There is no evidence that the Conservatives are adhering to specialist medical advice or 'following the science' as they so proclaim.

 Vix Lowthian, Green Party Education Spokesperson said on Twitter on Labour Party nationally:

Labour must not ignore the unions, educators, parents and entire communities. Schools have been opened without adequate safety measures. Now as we reach a crisis, teaching must move to distance learning. Labour have to change tack - it's not about chaos, its about safety.

The National Education Union  Executive is meeting today to discuss their reaction to events as the Covid rates amongst young people continues to rise.  There will be a zoom meeting for all members on Sunday where thousands of school workers are expected.

Commenting on the latest decision by Government to close all London primary schools until 18 January at the earliest, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the NEU, said:

 

It is welcome that, albeit in their usual last-minute fashion, ministers have corrected an obviously nonsensical position - one that it could not justify by evidence or sense.

 

But the question has to be asked: why are education ministers so inadequate and inept? Who is advising them? 

 

And what is right for London is right for the rest of the country. With the highest level of Covid-19 infection, and hospitals buckling under the tsunami of very ill patients, it is time for ministers to do their duty - to protect the NHS by following SAGE advice and close all primary and secondary schools to reduce the R rate below 1. 

 

It is time for the government to protect its citizens, and in particular its children, by shutting all primary schools for two weeks in order for the situation to be properly assessed, schools made much safer and children and their families protected.

Vix Lowthian, Education Spokesperson for the Green Party, will be speaking at a Green Party Trade Union Group Meeting at 4pm this afternoon. The meeting is open to all Green Party members. Email  yrrumuk@googlemail.com for joining details.

 

BREAKING: Government U-turn on London school closures - surely Williamson must go now

 The Guardian is reporting that the government is now to include ALL London boroughs in the list of areas where primary schools will close for all but the keyworker and vulnerable children in at least the first two weeks of January.

 

This answers calls from Harrow, Haringey and other  London councils that they be included.

See https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jan/01/all-primary-schools-in-london-to-remain-closed-after-u-turn

Harrow Council risks dispute with Government as it advises schools to switch to on-line learning next week

Quote from letter sent to Harrow school leaders by Council leaders and Chief Executive:

 

Full Letter - Click on image to enlarge