A statement from the Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, on Covid-19 and schools
"With rising levels of Covid-19 in Newham as we come to the end of the winter term, there has been much discussion about whether the Local Authority should be closing schools as some London boroughs have been doing.
Before I say anything more on this, I would like to firstly thank school and college staff across Newham for their dedication and efforts this term for all our children and young people; and indeed throughout the pandemic this year. Those working in schools and colleges have faced an incredibly challenging set of circumstances and I thank them for all their efforts.
As with much decision-making around the Covid-19 pandemic, there are no easy answers and the present challenge we face is this: of all the different alternatives we have before us – none of which we want to choose – which is the best for our children as we manage virus transmission in our community here in Newham and across London?
You will all be aware that earlier today, the government announced that London will be moved to a new Tier 3 of enhanced Covid-19 restrictions from 00.01 past midnight this Wednesday, as transmission of the virus is growing at an exponential rate in the Capital.
On the one hand, we are desperate to reduce the spread of Covid-19 in the community, reducing the number of people who become seriously unwell and allowing everyone to live as normal lives as they can – despite the restrictions and constraints. We also know how important school is; not just for educational outcomes but as important right now to our children’s wider wellbeing. Children have paid a terrible price for this pandemic so far, and we owe it to them to do all we can to help them navigate the challenge of living with Covid-19 in the coming months with as little disruption and as much support as we possibly can.
I have discussed the options and these challenges with Cllr Sarah Ruiz, Cabinet member for Education; Cllr Zulfiqar Ali, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care; the Chief Executive, our Director of Education and our Director of Public Health, as well as other senior officers.
Firstly, we do not believe the Local Authority has the legal ability to instruct education settings to close. The public health provisions in statute are related to outbreaks in particular settings, not settings overall, and alongside this the Secretary of State for Education has reserved right of decision making on school opening in the pandemic legislation. Our understanding is that the government has now challenged Greenwich and Islington on their current schools closure positions.
However, even without a legal basis we have our leadership role in the advice we provide to schools.
First – all governors and heads will know the situation of their school the best. They are no doubt thinking about this daily in terms of the capacity they have in their staff teams and the needs of their pupils including the most vulnerable.
We trust in their dedication and expertise to navigate these difficult challenges.
Our Public Health team has worked day in day out with schools this term providing them preventative advice and supporting them when cases of Covid-19 have emerged.
In consultation with our Director of Public Health, our advice to schools and colleges now is this: only close to ‘in-person’ teaching before the end of term if they have outbreaks in multiple year groups. This would suggest that there is more likelihood of there being further cases within the school, and with term about to finish gives the best chance for children and staff to isolate and disrupt ongoing transmission.
Where cases are confined to a single year group – as is the case with most situations in schools currently – we believe that sending that bubble home is the most appropriate step.
To be clear, our approach is based upon the following:
- The majority of situations in Newham schools where bubbles have been sent home to isolate relate to single cases of confirmed Covid-19 in the school. While there have been examples of small outbreaks among children and young people – this is not the norm despite a full term of school.
- Linked to above, the evidence is that schools have not been environments that have created a lot of spread. Despite a term’s worth of teaching in schools, the numbers of children testing positively have increased quickly only recently and this may well due to factors outside of the school day. As I said above, we have not seen many school based outbreaks.
- We know that school is vital for children both for learning and their wider emotional wellbeing and believe it is important not to close down schools unless absolutely necessary.
- Keeping children in school for a bit longer will allow more to access testing and support both school based adults and children to isolate safely over the holiday period.
This has been an incredibly challenging year so far for our children and schools and colleges, as it has been for the wider community here in Newham. With vaccine-based immunity some months away, we know next term will be no easier. That’s why we are working really hard now, to establish a robust testing regime for schools in our borough to support them to navigate the coming months with less disruption going forward.
This includes supporting all school-based staff to have tests before they return to school and extending to older children in our secondary schools as well – and we are already working closely with all schools to role these testing systems out.
As we end the year, I really hope everyone here in Newham – young and old – act safely over the holidays to reduce transmission of the virus in the community. So that when our children are back after the school break, they can access testing and approach the New Year with optimism and hope – despite the challenges of Covid-19 living, which we all want to see an end to in 2021."