Teachers in Lancaster and Morecambe say June 1 return to school date is 'absolutely reckless'

Primary school children could return to school next month.

Unions in the education sector have set out key principles and tests for the reopening of schools in England to ensure the safety of children, parents, staff and the communities they serve.

Teaching staff in Lancaster and Morecambe have described the government’s plan to send children back to school on June 1 as “absolutely reckless”.

Many parents have also expressed concern over the plans.

One Morecambe headteacher said schools would not be able to make it work “without severely compromising guidance on personal safety”.

Sam Ud-din, NEU secretary for Lancaster and Morecambe.

On May 10, Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out plans to ease the coronavirus lockdown after schools closed to all but children of key workers at the end of March.

The proposals are to return reception, year 1 and year 6 pupils to school from June 1, but there are no plans for secondary or higher education establisments to re-open.

Other primary school year groups could return in mid-June, but teaching unions said the worst outcome of any wider re-opening of schools is a second spike of the Covid-19 infection, which has been connected to more than 30,000 deaths in the UK.

The proposals have come under fire from major unions who represent staff working in the education sector - including the TUC, GMB, NAHT, NASUWT, NEU and UNISON.

There are no dates set for secondary schools to return.

And more than 450,000 parents have signed a petition on Change.org demanding they have the choice to keep their kids away from school when they re-open.

It is understood that parents would not be penalised if they chose not to send their children back to school.

The majority of 49,000 NEU members - 92 per cent - said they did not support a wider re-opening of schools from June 1.

Sam Ud-din, Lancaster and Morecambe District Secretary for the National Education Union (NEU) said: “On Sunday our Prime Minister told us of his plan to ease ‘lockdown’.

Siobhan Collingwood, headteacher at Morecambe Bay Primary School.

“On Monday we were given some details – and his Chancellor also told us of plans to extend the current ‘furloughing scheme’ to the end of July unchanged, and further to the end October with changes.

“As a union, we have rejected the suggestion that some primary schools may return from June 1 as absolutely reckless.

“To be clear, we still want children to be able to return to quality education in our schools, taught by qualified teachers, supported by high quality support staff – but only when it is safe for them to do so.”

Siobhan Collingwood, headteacher at Morecambe Bay Primary School, said there needs to be individual responses from schools because they’ve each got a different set of circumstances.