No schools circuit breaker in Lancashire as half term comes to an end
Parents and pupils are being urged to test regularly for Covid-19 as school across Lancashire reopened after the half term break.
Lancashire’s public health boss says that a union proposal for the county’s schools to remain closed for a week of home-learning after the half term break would “not make much difference” to the spread of Covid in the county.
As the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed earlier this week, Lancashire’s representative on the National Education Union’s (NEU) executive committee said that creating what would effectively be a two-week “circuit breaker” for schools had to be “worth considering” in the face of rising infection rates.
Ian Watkinson called for the move in an attempt to avoid having to “firefight” outbreaks and avert the disruption caused by multiple ‘bubbles’ of children having to be sent home to self-isolate over concern about contact with Covid cases. He said that schools could deliver more effective remote learning if they were doing so en masse.
However, the county’s top public health official says that the step would not have the desired effect.
“One week is not going to make much difference to start with and also given that infections are rising anyway across the whole of the community and we don’t quite know who children are mixing with in the community.
“If there is a need to focus on school closures, we will do that on a school-by-school basis – but a blanket approach of extending the half term would probably have more of a negative impact on education than a positive impact on transmission.
“What we really need to do is focus on ventilation in schools and regular testing.
“Given the fact we are seeing education settings having a lot of outbreaks, we are calling for better ventilation and investment in our schools and colleges so that children can continue to learn in a safe way.
“Ventilation is mainly about investing in buildings, which I would like to see,” said Dr. Karunanithi, who added that regular testing for asymptomatic students – currently recommended at twice-weekly intervals for secondary pupils – was also crucial.