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Quick thread on Gavin Williamson's appearance at the @CommonsEd today and there was loads to go at. MPs were told Covid testing of staff will be rolled out to primary schools from next week but that DfE plans for testing of pupils to be done at home. 1/7 https://www.tes.com/news/primary-school-teachers-wont-have-covid-test-pupils
The education secretary also told committee chairman @halfon4harlowMP that he is fighting "tooth and nail" to ensure teachers and school staff are a priority for the Covid vaccine. 2/7 https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-Covid-gavin-williamson-fighting-tooth-and-nail-school-vaccine
When questioned on remote learning Gavin Williamson encouraged teachers to conduct live online lessons during the lockdown 3/7 via @Specktator100 https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-schools-live-online-lessons-are-important-teachers-are-told
He was also questioned over the DfE's controversial move to issue a legal direction to stop a council moving schools online over Covid concerns last term. Mr Williamson told MPs that "none of us knew" about the new variant at that time. https://www.tes.com/news/dfe-orders-council-back-down-and-keep-schools-open 4/7
However Danny Thorpe, leader of Greenwich Council said Williamson's claim about not knowing about the new Covid variant when the legal move was made was "simply not true" as health secretary Matt Hancock had made a statement about it the same day. https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-gavin-williamson-new-covid-variant-claim-simply-not-true 5/7
Mr Williamson did not offer an apology when asked by the committee who said schools had faced undue stress and pressure” with “repeated last-minute communications” on Covid decisions. https://www.tes.com/news/covid-no-apology-williamson-last-minute-decisions via @tweetsbyames 6/7
And Gavin Williamson also said Edenred would be used to run school meal voucher scheme again and said he was disgusted at the images of food parcels that have caused controversy. A full round up of his appearance today at @CommonsEd is here. https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-six-things-we-learned-gavin-williamson-facing-mps 7/7
