Furious parents slam school rules on street ‘split in two’ as one reopens but other stays shut

: "The school at one end of the street I live in will be closed while the school at the other end is open."

And another fumed that their area is now "split in two" with "schools on one side of the road closed, the other side open".

Thousands of schools in 49 hardest-hit Covid areas will remain closed for in-person teaching due to spiralling cases - except for vulnerable kids and children of key workers.

Liz Keeble, headteacher of a primary school in Basildon, Essex, said she learned from the television on Wednesday afternoon that her school would not reopen next week, before hearing from her bosses.

She told BBC Breakfast today: "We have to kind of plan for the worst and hope for the best really. "

London council leaders criticised the Government's list of areas where primary schools will not open to pupils next week as having "no logic".

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he was "urgently seeking clarification as to why schools in some London boroughs have been chosen to stay open" while others "just down the road won't".

Other critics included Danny Thorpe, leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, threatened with legal action by the Government earlier this month after issuing advice to schools to move to online learning for the last few days of term.

 

Mr Thorpe said there was "no logic to how this list was brought together" as Greenwich was not on the list of schools which had to close.

He raged: “Kensington and Chelsea has one of the lowest infection rates for the whole of the capital, yet their children and young people are being afforded the extra protection that apparently Royal Greenwich students don’t need.

“While we are very glad that they will benefit from these extra precautions, we can only speculate why this borough was included, yet with an infection rate more than 200 cases higher per 100,000, Royal Greenwich was not.”

Redbridge was also left off the list, but later added with MP Wes Streeting saying last night: "We have a situation where lists are being updated only minutes after publication.

"This is an utter shambles. I’m so sorry to parents and staff affected by Government incompetence."

CLASSROOM CHAOS

Islington schools have been given the green light to open, with council leader Richard Watts saying he wanted "urgent clarification" on why they were exempt from the London-wide shutdown.

He said: "It is deeply frustrating that the Government has made this announcement at the last minute, just days before the start of term, weeks after it was clear coronavirus cases were surging in London.";

Mr Williamson batted away criticism and said today he is "absolutely confident" secondary schools will be able to run a mass testing regime with an extra week to prepare.

He told Sky News: "In terms of secondary year groups, the reason that we have moved that back is so we give all schools, every single school, every single college that teaches secondary-age pupils the opportunity to roll out a mass testing regime, making sure we root out this coronavirus."

Robert Halfon, Conservative MP for Harlow and chairmen of the Education Select Committee, called for teachers to be made a priority for vaccinations against Covid-19 so schools can stay open.

He expressed concerns over a potential "epidemic of educational poverty" as school openings are delayed.

Yesterday afternoon he declared would do "everything" to keep children in school, and the majority of primary schools will reopen on Monday, January 4.

But, in nearly 50 Tier 4 areas where infection rates are highest, ALL schools will have to stay closed, including primaries.

That includes most of London, Essex, Kent, and a handful of areas in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and East Sussex - but key workers and vulnerable pupils can still attend.

These will stay closed until at least January 18 - but the situation will be reviewed every two weeks.

Secondary schools in the hotspot areas will stay closed for at least two weeks until January 18 - along with schools in the rest of the country.

The data will be reviewed before then and a decision made whether to get schools back.

But students set to sit GCSEs and A-levels will return on January 11 as planned - and any January exams will go ahead.

Boris Johnson told the nation last night at an emergency press conference: "I am afraid the start of the new term will be delayed until at least January 18, when the latest data on those infection rates will be reviewed. 

'CONFUSED RULES'

Early years like nurseries will remain open nationally, as will alternative provision and special schools.

Students going back to university should stay home if they can - and only those who need to attend for practical learning to go back.

They should get two coronavirus tests before they do. The plans will be reviewed every two weeks - with no end date in sight for when they may be allowed to open.

The first starter packs of up to 1,000 test kits will only arrive at all secondary schools and colleges on 04 January - meaning schools face weeks of delays before being able to test everyone.

1,500 military personnel are on hand to help with the tests.

Matt Hancock has now plunged three-quarters of England into Tier 4 - meaning millions of kids are set to miss out on yet more classroom time because of the killer pandemic - and will have to learn at home.

The Health Secretary told MPs all of the North East of England, the South West and most of the Midlands would be thrown into Tier 4.

The announcement means that all of England is living under Tier 3 or Tier 4 lockdown - apart from 2,000 people living on the Isles of Scilly.

Teaching unions called yesterday’s U-turn a “shambles”.

Paul Whiteman, of the National Association of Headteachers, said: “This is another last-minute mess which could so easily have been avoided if the Government had listened to school leaders.”

Meanwhile MPs’ return to Parliament has been delayed until January 11, angering many backbenchers.