Executive NEUs February 2nd

Special Executive – Tuesday, 2 February 2021

The audience for PM’s announcement that schools should commence opening from 8 March on 27 January was not the general public but backbench critics of the lockdown (the Covid Recovery Group et al) and designed to take attention away from the chilling total of 100,000 covid deaths.  The Government will review data on 15 February and make further announcement on 22 February. One of the key datasets the Government is looking at is hospitalisation rates (as confirmed to staff member at DfE meeting).

In Wales, schools will open to foundation stage on 22 February (support planned for reps and branches) and in Scotland there are plans for younger pupils and those taking vocational subjects to return by the end of the month.

JGSs reported on the Union’s proposed response:

• Focus should be data – not date
• Effect of vaccination roll-out on transmission rates key; some promising early data from Israel
• We focus on community transmission and schools being ‘vectors of infection’
• Cases not falling; latest figures from REACT (Imperial study) gives R at 0.98
• Risk that ICUs overwhelmed not fundamentally altered by the initial vaccination cohorts – critical hospital patients in 45+ age group
• Positive that Gavin Williamson’s proposal that schools commenced opening immediately after half-term rejected by PM
• The Union’s Education Recovery Plan launched and widely well-received including by the all-party MP event earlier in the week
• JGS meetings with Gavin Williamson now replaced with meetings with the permanent secretary; more profitable dialogue; initial discussions last week on how phasing might work – youngest and practical/vocational FE/HE students to be prioritised; followed by exam years; then early years and Alt Provision; then remainder of Y10-13; all subject to discussion and potential revision
• Calm and measured response to the call from Labour Party and other quarters that school staff be prioritised for the vaccine; criticism from MoS and other media on our refusal to back the call; priority for vaccination at the expense of which cohorts?
• The Support Staff Executive member reported that the zoom meeting of SS members had been well attended and extremely helpful

Member response

• We need to assess our members’ views on wider school re-opening
• No comparable member response to Gavin Williamson’s announcement in December when overwhelming member opposition on social media/other platforms
• Significantly different landscape now than in December – SAGE minutes of 22 December advising on the impact of the new variant on likely infection spikes if schools remained open;
• We cannot assume that our members want the current situation to continue – not least because far more pupils in school under this lockdown so members delivering both online and live lessons
• Balanced and helpful OFSTED report on how the profession has responded to the challenges of blended learning – key findings:
• 45% of teachers saying workload had greatly increased and 41% that it had increased somewhat – 86% facing increased workload
• 49% responded that difficulties in aligning the curriculum with remote learning
• Remote learning more successful in workplaces where these platforms were well-established prior to the pandemic;
• 35% of teachers do not feel confident using virtual platforms

Science and data

• ONS data on deaths of education staff for the period March to December 2020 – 176 deaths of 1.3m education staff; every death a tragedy and this figure would undoubtedly be higher but for the Union’s actions;
• We cannot make the simple claim that the death rates higher when schools are open and indeed more teachers died from non-covid conditions over the period;
• Data do support the claim that infection rates are higher amongst education staff than the general population, although fewer deaths due to demographic – younger, more women and relatively prosperous
• Document circulated to Executive (prepared by Andrew Baisley) with analysis of vaccination rates; based on 2.5m per week; by 1 March all 65+ and extremely clinically vulnerable vaccinated and by 9 March all those over 60 years; this is only the first jab and two week time-lag for immune response maximised; has to be a factor in our thinking for both member and community safety;

Summary of Union’s strategy – three elements:

• Our Education Recovery Plan – focus on safety, education and equality
• The pandemic has exposed the fragility of our education system
• Continue to base our response on the science
• Our position on vaccinations is robust – the JCVI has set out the priority cohorts based on age and vulnerability
• Even when vaccination rolled out to all adults, education staff will still need to self-isolate if in close contact with infection;
• Work with reps and branches to prepare for school return
• The remote Education Hub – garnering huge member support (20k visitors to the site on its first weekend going live)

Help a Child to Learn

The JGSs acknowledged that there had been some mistakes in the early stages of the campaign including the adoption of the term ‘a big announcement’ to trial the launch; insensitive wording in some messaging landing particularly badly with our supply members; no clear explanation of the money being redirected from savings made in last year with activities curtailed; and the misspelling of ‘stationery’ in one communication.