A school contacted me for advice some weeks ago. A medium sized school, they had suffered a Covid outbreak that left all but one of their permanent staff (teaching and non-teaching) and 1/3 of their pupils isolating. #edchatie 1/n

The Board decided to close the school on health & safety grounds (as distinct from public health grounds) as they did not think it prudent to operate with no member of the in-school mgt team and with so many subs. Also, they were unable to find full sub cover for the SNAs. 2/n

The Board informed their inspector (and others) of this decision and assured the inspector they would engage in remote learning. The DES contacted the school and ordered them to reopen as only the HSE may order a school closed on public health grounds. 3/n

The DES official helpfully noted that matters had been arranged this way so as not to “burden” the principal with such public health decisions. The Board clarified that they were closing on H&S grounds and not on public health grounds and asserted their legal right to do so. 4/n

The DES then demanded in very strong terms that the school open, still referencing ‘public health’ and ignoring the ‘health & safety’ grounds the Board cited. The Board made several requests for the legal grounds for the instruction but the question was repeatedly ignored. 5/n

The principal & Board felt intimidated and yielded to the DES instruction. My own letter on behalf of the Patron to the DES was ignored, largely I guess because there are no legal grounds for that instruction. 6/n

Boards of Management in schools have legal duties under Health and Safety legislation (not to mention other legal duties) and are required to act in good faith according to their best judgement. The DES rode roughshod over that and did so with no legal grounding. 7/7