As I look at the data towards decisions on schools, today I have had messages telling me ‘everyone thinks it’s obvious schools should stay closed’, and messages telling me ‘everyone thinks it’s appalling you’re even considering keeping schools closed’. 1/

Away from tribal bubbles on social media, the reality is this is a tough choice with harm either way. Keeping schools closed to most children damages their education, risks their general welfare & exacerbates social-economic attainment gap & the risks for children are v low. 2/

But then there’s the consideration of the impact on wider community spread, which is hard to quantify, and the voice of concerned staff in school. Perhaps this is the moment saving lives has to come first. 3/

Trying to get spread down and save lives is essential, perhaps above anything else at this moment with high infection rates & against backdrop of hope with vaccine roll-out. So at moment it seems the wider community interest may conflict with the narrower interests of pupils 4/

Interested in thoughts, but please don’t say this is an easy choice & don’t tell me this is about school staff being lazy, because they’re not. They’ve been working hard to provide distance learning & provision for key workers & vulnerable learners and will cont to do so. 5/