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School Openings: January 2022
15 December 2021
Lead MP
Robert Halfon
Debate Type
Ministerial Statement
Tags
NHSEmploymentParliamentary ProcedureMental Health
Other Contributors: 19
At a Glance
Robert Halfon raised concerns about school openings: january 2022 in the House of Commons. A government minister responded. Other MPs also contributed.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Robert Halfon
Con
Harlow
Question
Despite the heroic efforts of teachers and support staff in Harlow and around the country who have worked tirelessly to keep students learning, the four horsemen of the education apocalypse have been galloping towards our young people. The number of children being referred to mental health services has increased by 62%, and more than 230,000 children were not in school because of covid-related incidents. What is the Government’s plan to keep schools open? Are measures in place for supply teachers and additional funding for ventilation?
Minister reply
I thank my right hon. Friend for his question. We are clear that the best place for schoolchildren is in school, with face-to-face teaching. Testing, vaccination, ventilation, and hygiene are key to our success against omicron. We recommend testing all secondary pupils at the start of next term, offering additional funding for this testing, and ensuring schools have CO2 monitors. Over 80% of people aged 12 and over have received at least two jabs, and we aim to maximise booster uptake before schools resume.
Stephen Morgan
Lab
Portsmouth South
Question
Firstly, I thank school staff for their dedication during a year of difficulties. However, the Government’s complacency is pushing us into a race against time to protect children’s health and education as omicron spreads. Yesterday's absence figures showed 235,000 children out of school due to covid. Will the Minister publish interim findings of the Bradford pilot on air purifiers? What steps will he take to rapidly ramp up vaccine roll-out for 12-15-year-olds?
Minister reply
I join the hon. Gentleman in his remarks about schools and staff. We have good vaccination, ventilation, hygiene, and testing rates in schools. Boosters are key to tackling omicron; we need people to come forward for boosters to ensure a normal school term in January.
Tim Loughton
Con
East Worthing and Shoreham
Question
I am reassured to hear the determination of my hon. Friend to keep schools open, but does he agree that the disgraceful campaign of intimidation waged by National Education Union managers to close down schools earlier this year wreaked huge chaos across schools that will take many years to overcome? Will he welcome the measures being proposed by my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow and will he agree that ultimately the decision on safety and keeping schools open should be left to individual heads?
Minister reply
I thank my hon. Friend for his remarks. We are absolutely determined to do everything we can to keep schools open, even creating a workforce fund during the surge of the delta variant which enabled the vast majority of schools to stay open. I remind him that we still have this fund and intend to say more about it in the next few days.
Barry Sheerman
Lab
Huddersfield
Question
I urge the Minister to take very seriously the morale out there in schools. We spend a lot of time, quite rightly, thanking NHS staff as frontliners, but teachers and the whole school community are also wonderful, hard-working people, so let us look carefully to morale and to the health of our children, which is paramount. Will he also look at early years and nursery provision? Will he please talk to the people at the National Day Nurseries Association?
Minister reply
The hon. Gentleman has enormous expertise in this field as former Chair of the Education Committee. I reassure him that the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Will Quince), is in regular contact with the group he mentions. Education being open is vital to the national effort and it is education settings being open—particularly for key workers—that means that the NHS can function.
Mark Harper
Con
Forest of Dean
Question
May I put on record my thanks to the headteachers, teachers and all staff at schools in the Forest of Dean? Once again, there are rumours—only rumours—that the Prime Minister is intending to hold another press conference today. Will the Minister confirm whether that is indeed the case and if so, that there will be a statement in this House setting out whatever measures are to be announced?
Minister reply
I thank my right hon. Friend for his question. He is an experienced Member of this House and he will know that Under-Secretaries of State are not always informed of what is happening right at the very centre, but I am sure that the powers that be will have heard his question.
Steve Brine
Con
Winchester
Question
The Prime Minister has been clear that Christmas concerts and nativity plays should go ahead, yet we see state schools already closed for Christmas. What are the Government actually going to do legally to see that their will is enforced and that schools are back in January?
Minister reply
In answer to my hon. Friend’s second question, I think it is clear that Labour MPs have gone on their holidays. In answer to his first question, we absolutely want and expect education settings to be open, we want and expect children to be taught in person and school life to go ahead.
Sarah Green
Lib Dem
Chesham and Amersham
Question
Our children cannot afford for schools to close again or to miss more face-to-face teaching through absence. As has been mentioned previously, evidence shows that ventilation equipment in schools reduces the airborne risk of coronavirus by up to 70%. When can we expect the results of the Bradford pilot scheme to be published and when can schools expect ventilation equipment to be delivered?
Minister reply
We take ventilation and the quality of air extremely seriously. We have achieved our public commitment of delivering 300,000 carbon dioxide monitors over the autumn term; in fact, we have excelled on our target. Ventilation is one of the four pillars that will help us best maintain school in person.
Claire Coutinho
Con
East Surrey
Question
May I put on the record my thanks to the hard-working teachers and heads in East Surrey for keeping schools open during the delta variant? Will the Minister please reassure us that he will be able to try to maintain confidence in schools and keep them open?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend raises an extremely important point. Like her, I have been extremely impressed at how calm a head the education settings I have visited and spoken to have managed to keep in the midst of a crisis, despite the quite unnecessary pressure that certain groups have put on them.
Jim Shannon
DUP
Strangford
Question
Does he agree that for some children, Christmas at home is not a time of joy? Will he outline what discussions have been had with the Northern Ireland Education Minister to share information in an attempt to see that every region of the United Kingdom implements the right strategy?
Minister reply
I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that, at official level, we are in constant dialogue with our friends and partners in Northern Ireland. There is a great deal that we can learn from each other and that we continue to learn from each other.
Mark Jenkinson
Con
Workington
Question
This week, for the second year in a row, I am delivering nearly 7,000 Christmas books—one to every primary school child in my constituency—to spread a bit of cheer after another difficult year. Will my hon. Friend remind militant unions that a majority of teachers and heads share his desire to keep all children in school at all costs?
Minister reply
I have always considered my hon. Friend to be a spreader of good cheer, and I now have a wonderful image of him traipsing around his constituency with a large sack upon his back. The headteachers and school leaders I meet share his and the Department’s determination to do the best for their children.
Flick Drummond
Con
Meon Valley
Question
May I take this opportunity to thank all teachers and school staff in Meon Valley? May I ask my hon. Friend to give schools and headteachers plenty of warning—hopefully not at weekends—if there are to be any changes to the system?
Minister reply
I fully hear what my hon. Friend says. As of this morning, all our guidance is up to date. We maintain a very good conversation with school leaders in what is obviously a very fast-moving situation.
Lia Nici
Con
Great Grimsby
Question
I would like my hon. Friend to thank all the school teams and college teams in Great Grimsby, as well as employers who are offering placements to students. Will my hon. Friend make sure that we now get the message out to parents: “School is safe, and school is the best thing for your children”?
Minister reply
I am very happy to echo my hon. Friend’s remarks about Great Grimsby. I look forward to telling education leaders myself when I visit in the new year. Absolutely, the message goes out: we know what is best for children and we are trying our very best to make sure that it happens.
Ben Everitt
Con
North Cornwall
Question
Testing for school pupils has become something of a regular occurrence for households across the country, including my own. Can my hon. Friend confirm that covid-19 tests will continue to be distributed to schools and pupils so that we can monitor the incidence of outbreaks of the virus?
Minister reply
Absolutely. I am very happy to confirm that schools have and will have the testing capacity they need.
Tom Hunt
Lab
Ipswich
Question
It was fantastic to be out last week in primary schools in Ipswich handing out certificates for Christmas card entries. Learning loss is often a concern but not the main concern, which is the impact of lack of socialisation and mental health implications. Will the Minister confirm that if there is a big struggle with teaching unions that do not put enough value on children’s education, he will stand up not just for learning, but for the mental health and social development of all our young people?
Minister reply
Absolutely. We have been very keen to make sure that we invest in the mental health of children and young people, following what has been an extremely difficult 18 months. I am very happy to join my hon. Friend in praising the primary school children of Ipswich and their artistic prowess.
Question
School closures have been a welfare catastrophe for millions of vulnerable children. During the pandemic, there has been a 77% increase in self-generated sexual images of children online, and referrals have doubled for paediatric eating disorders. Some 2.2 million children in England live in households affected by addiction and abuse, yet in the first lockdown just 6% of vulnerable children attended school. What will my hon. Friend do, and what can we do as parliamentarians to support him, to make sure that this tragedy never again happens to our vulnerable children?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend is a very powerful advocate for the cause that she raises. Those are shocking statistics. We kept education settings open throughout the pandemic for the most vulnerable children. Where pupils who are self-isolating are within our definition of “vulnerable”, it is very important that we have systems in place to keep in contact with them, particularly if they have a social worker.
Bob Blackman
Con
Harrow East
Question
I congratulate headteachers and staff across Harrow, who have kept schools open during very difficult and challenging times. I am a very strong supporter of the vaccine programme and testing, but many of our children will be mixing over Christmas with people from across the country and may inadvertently and regrettably catch covid. Will my hon. Friend and the Department issue guidance telling children and families that they should be tested before they go to school, not when they get to school? Inadvertently, they could spread covid once they are in school being tested.
Minister reply
We encourage everybody to test regularly. To do our very best to ensure the next term starts well, we will be encouraging all secondary school pupils to be tested right at the start of term and we are introducing a degree of flexibility on start dates to achieve that. Schools are now very experienced in making sure they take precautions so that infection is not spread when children are together and preparing to be tested.
Laura Trott
Con
Sevenoaks
Question
I welcome the Minister’s words about keeping educational settings open as a priority, but will he go further and guarantee that primary schools will be kept open? We know that children that young cannot learn properly online, and that the damage to their education and wellbeing is immense. It is unthinkable that we will not keep them open to all children, whatever happens.
Minister reply
I thank my hon. Friend for her remarks. She is a very powerful advocate for the position she has just set out. I repeat what the Secretary of State said at the weekend: he is doing everything in his power to ensure that schools will stay open.
Question
I would like to put on record my thanks to Stroud schools and the fact that I have registered with the Department concerns about additional costs arising from tackling covid. On the rumours of lockdowns or further lockdowns, I have spoken to many Stroud parents throughout the pandemic who are incredibly worried about the welfare of their children due to school closures. With the cruel and devastating deaths of young Arthur and Star keeping us up at night, many Stroud parents are worried not only about their own children but about hidden children, and teachers feel the same. Will my hon. Friend confirm that in all discussions with unions, scientific advisers and medical advisers, he refers constantly to the fact that we now know that lockdowns hide evil and damage children’s health?
Minister reply
I know my hon. Friend understands these issues extremely well. We very much want to keep schools open. We think schools are the best place for children in the midst of a pandemic, particularly vulnerable children who are in care or on the edge of care. We are determined that social work contact should continue, so that we can ensure those children will be protected.
Question
I take this opportunity to thank teachers, lecturers, support staff and other educationalists across Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke for their fantastic efforts. I spent eight and a half wonderful years working as a secondary school teacher in London and Birmingham, and it is absolutely essential that schools are kept open. I do not want to hear from the Minister that we are going to do everything we can; I want to hear simply that they will stay open. More than ever, secondary school teachers want assurances that exam plans for summer 2022 will go ahead as normal. The Labour party is stuck in the vice grip of the National Union of Teachers, so we need to ensure that we do not listen to them but to teachers who know that exams are always the best way forward.
Minister reply
It is always a pleasure to answer questions from my hon. Friend, who is an extraordinarily passionate advocate for children and education. He will have heard what I said. We want schools to stay open. We want exams to go ahead. We are working to that end.
Shadow Comment
None
Shadow Comment
Thank you for granting this urgent question, Mr Speaker. Despite the heroic efforts of teachers and support staff in Harlow and around the country who have worked tirelessly to keep students learning, the four horsemen of the education apocalypse have been galloping towards our young people in the form of a widening attainment gap, an epidemic of mental health problems, a rise in safeguarding hazards, and a loss of life chances. The number of children being referred to mental health support services has increased by 62%, and more than 230,000 children were not in school because of covid-related incidents. Despite the Government’s assurances that they want to keep schools open, what is their plan? Measures are needed to ensure a network of supply teachers is ready if education staff isolate, and additional funding for adequate ventilation must be provided.
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