Full text of statement sent to Derby Telegraph following Boris Johnson's announcement about potential school reopening on 1st June

Update: Derby Telegraph published part of this statement in this article.

Like my general secretary, Mary Bousted, I agree that last night’s announcement was reckless. The NEU has been clear throughout this crisis that we want to return to work as soon as it is safe to do so. We will be led by the science and have set five tests that we can use to judge whether it is safe for schools to reopen.

We see no evidence that the government will be in a position to meet those tests by 1^st June, and we are still waiting for the government to supply  much of the evidence we have asked to see. As public servants we have not lost sight of the fact that if the schools reopen too early, rapid transmission of the virus will resume and more people will die. The five tests are absolutely crucial to this. We must have confidence that when we return to work we are not putting ourselves, our students and vulnerable people at greater risk than is absolutely necessary.

As teachers, support staff and parents, we are all going through the same stresses and difficulties that lockdown has created. None of us want to be in this position any longer than necessary. But we cannot in good conscience ignore the reality that the UK has the highest coronavirus death toll in Europe and that we are a long way from bringing it under control unless stringent social distancing is observed. The government should be leading on this and finding ways to help people cope with lockdown and social distancing, not placing pressure on employers and employees to return to a deadly version of normal life.

As a union we will support any of our members who are asked to work in unsafe conditions to refuse to do so. We believe that parents and the wider public understand and support this position. Our NEU petition to only reopen schools when it is safe to do so currently has over 378,000 signatures. The NEU has written a joint letter with Parentkind, the national PTA organisation, expressing this to Gavin Williamson. A parental petition begun immediately after the Prime Minister’s announcement last night calling for parents to have the right to keep their child off school if they do not believe it is safe, currently has nearly 350,000 signatures at time of writing and is still growing fast.

Let’s be clear – key workers are not being thoroughly tested for the virus. There is not the infrastructure in place to do so. The prospect that all schools will be in a position to test staff and students on arrival at school by June 1^st seems like a fantasy to me. The proposed year groups to bring back into school include students least able to socially isolate from each other or staff – Reception children, for example, will not cope with social distancing from their friends, teachers and support staff, they will find it distressing to say the least. We have already seen in schools where relatively large numbers of students are attending that social distancing is in practical terms impossible to enforce. The only reason to begin with primary school children as far as I can see is because childcare for young children is expensive and will pose a barrier to workers being able to return to work in unsafe environments where social distancing is only ‘where possible’. This is putting business’ profits above public health.

Kieran Picken
District Secretary, Derby City NEU