Doctors say it’s too RISKY to reopen schools on June 1 but chiefs could defy advice to get kids back

DOCTORS say it is too risky to reopen schools on June 1 - but the country's biggest primary school chains are backing the government's plans.

There are fears Boris Johnson, who wants primary schools to begin opening their gates in a fortnight, has moved too quickly with measures this week to ease the coronavirus lockdown in England.

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Unions are opposed to the plan, claiming teachers, pupils and their families will be at risk of catching the deadly virus.

They were backed yesterday by the doctors' union, the British Medical Association, who said unions were "absolutely right" to urge caution and prioritise testing before reopening schools on June 1.

But today Anne Longfield, the Children's Commissioner for England, said: "We cannot afford to wait for a vaccine, which may never arrive, before children are back in school."

BMA council's chair, Chaand Nagpaul, the BMA council's chair, said: "We cannot risk a second spike or take actions which would increase the spread of this virus, particularly as we see sustained rates of infection across the UK."

In other developments:

• Britain's death toll surpassed 34,000
• Latest data suggested R in England was between 0.7 and 1.0 - compared to a previous estimate of 0.5 to 0.9.
• Brits have been urged to stick to social distancing rules as millions are set to soak up the sunshine this weekend
• Boris Johnson told Conservative MPs Britain would not pay for the cost of the crisis by going back to austerity, but he refused to rule out tax rises

Following a meeting with government scientific advisers yesterday, union representatives said they had been left with more questions than answers, with one union leader describing the scientific evidence as "flimsy at best".

Meanwhile Liverpool became the first local authority to rule out reopening its school until at least June 15, in a major blow to the government.

Hartlepool in County Durham, later joined Liverpool in saying it would ignore the plan.

However the heads of four school chains - Reach 2, Harris, Oasis and GEP - announced yesterday they were backing the government plan.

Steve Chalke, founder of the Oasis trust which has 35 primary schools, claimed opposition to reopening is "rather middle class" and failed to recognise the damage being down to disadvantaged children from missing lessons.

Sir Steve Lancashire, chief executive of Reach 2, the country's biggest primary multi-academy trust with 50 schools, said: "Our intention is to open all of our schools for the priority year groups, and will do so as long as the rigorous risk assessments we carry out for each school gives us the reassurance we need that we can keep our pupils and staff as safe as possible."

As the row between ministers and teaching unions intensified, Longfield told them to "stop squabbling and agree a plan" to reopen schools safely.

She said many children were struggling away from the classroom and the lack of education would impact on future life chances.

She said: "All sides need to show a greater will to work together in the interests of children.

"We cannot afford to wait for a vaccine, which may never arrive, before children are back in school.

"It's time to stop squabbling and agree a staggered, safe return that is accompanied by rigorous testing of teachers, children and families."

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She told the Today programme: "My worry within all that is that the needs of children and the best interests of children are disappearing from view.

"There are really strong reasons why children need to get back into school. It is really imperative to see the can-do willingness to work together that we have seen in other parts of society.

"None of us want to put children, or indeed staff or parents, into any kind of situation that is unsafe. But until we get a vaccine we are going to have to be managing risk."

Patrick Roach, general secretary of the teaching union NASUWT, said: "There has been no squabbling on behalf of the NASUWT.

"The issue is very clear. We want to see schools reopening as soon as practicable.

"And that's what our members want, and what our members are saying, very clearly, is that schools need to reopen in a manner which is safe to do."

Mr Roach said teachers needed "unequivocal guidance" from the Government that there would be "strong controls" in place which would satisfy both teachers and parents that it was safe to return.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "We are continuing to say to Government, but also to schools and employers, that we are here, we want to work with those employers to put plans in place to see whether schools can be ready for re-opening from June 1.

"We want schools to be re-opened, we want children to be safe and we want staff to be safe. It is not a zero sum game here.

"It is about ensuring that we get back to a place where we can return to some form of normality."

Christopher King, head of the Independent Association of Prep Schools said he expected all 670 schools to reopen to the priority year groups on June 1.

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At last night's press briefing, Dr Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England, insisted the risks were low with just two or three out of 1,000 of the population currently thought to be infected.

She said: "There's a lot of anxiety I think around this but people need to think through - in an average infant school with 100 children the likelihood of anybody having this disease is very small and diminishing with time."

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