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Quick(!) Covid news thread on the utter chaos of the past 17 or so days since . .erm Sunday. It all kicked off on Sunday night when Greenwich Council said it was asking schools to move online because an "exponential" rise in Covid cases. 1/14 https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-council-asks-schools-close-remote-teaching-online-week
This move came after the government had revealed it was concerned about Covid rates in other parts of London and was ordering mass testing of secondary school age pupils in the North East of the city along with parts of Essex and Kent. 2/14 https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-rapid-covid-tests-london-essex-and-kent-schools
But Greenwich's move was massively controversial because it was flying in the face of the DfE's expectation that all schools stay fully open - which has been its constant position before, during and after the last national lockdown. 3/14 https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-schools-will-stay-open-through-new-lockdown-says-pm
And we had already seen the the DfE push trusts and schools to back down on plans to close early or move lessons online by raising the prospect that it could use emergency Coronavirus Act powers to direct them to stay open. 4/14 https://www.tes.com/news/academies-have-no-freedoms-when-it-comes-covid
The morning after Greenwich asked its schools to move online the floodgates looked like they might open. Both Islington and Waltham Forest Councils announced similar plans to effectively defy the DfE. 5/14 https://www.tes.com/news/covid-second-london-council-tells-schools-go-online
and London mayor Sadiq Khan also waded in suggesting schools across the capital should close from that night to help stop the spread of the virus. But the DfE was already making clear that it did not approve. 6/14 https://www.tes.com/news/close-schools-tonight-stop-covid-says-london-mayor
With schools facing political pressure & uncertainty @RealGeoffBarton urged DfE to remove the threat of legal directions on schools and bring an end to the chaos by allowing local leaders to make decisions about whether to move online over Covid. 7/14 https://www.tes.com/news/end-covid-chaos-and-threats-schools-dfe-told
But this was ignored and how. Late yesterday afternoon the DfE issued a legal direction forcing Greenwich Council to back down. It said the council should withdraw letters
which had asked schools to move online this week. 8/14 https://www.tes.com/news/dfe-orders-council-back-down-and-keep-schools-open#:~:text=Education%20secretary%20Gavin%20Williamson%20has,over%20Covid%20concerns%20from%20today.
which had asked schools to move online this week. 8/14 https://www.tes.com/news/dfe-orders-council-back-down-and-keep-schools-open#:~:text=Education%20secretary%20Gavin%20Williamson%20has,over%20Covid%20concerns%20from%20today.
Important to remember this DfE direction came after the end of a school day which many Greenwich schools had thought would be their last of term being fully open to pupils. 24 hours earlier they had been told to plan to move online but now national Govt was forbidding this. 9/14
Today Greenwich Council has agreed to meet the DfE demand and has withdrawn its call for schools to move online over Covid fears but it said this was because it couldn't justify spending public money on a legal battle. 10/14 https://www.tes.com/news/council-backs-down-closing-schools-after-dfe-order
But the council has pushed back against the DfE in a strongly worded letter to Gavin Williamson which questions the legality of the government's actions and which points out that the council was not asking schools to close but to move online. 11/14 https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-covid-legality-dfes-keep-schools-open-demand-questioned
The DfE has pushed on with this today with minister Nick Gibb writing to schools in Islington and Waltham Forest warning that a legal direction could be issued to ensure they stay open & saying he is disappointed by councils' "unilateral approach". 12/14 https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-covid-exclusive-more-heads-face-legal-threat-over-closures
It is undoubtedly a battle that the DfE can keep winning as it has the powers to order schools to stay open. But when what we are talking about is a public health risk and schools trying to manage chaos at Christmas I wonder if it is losing more than it gains. 13/14
Final world on this @RealGeoffBarton who says DfE is using "bully boy tactics" to stick to "robotic mantra to keep schools open whatever the cost" but adds "the costs could be incredibly high." End of the thread but far from the end of the story. 14/14. https://www.tes.com/news/there-will-be-reckoning-dfes-bully-boy-tactics
