Giving teachers vaccine would be ‘step forward for safety’ says Shropshire head
Vaccinating teachers against coronavirus as a priority would assuage some worries about the reopening of schools, a Shropshire headteacher said as the Government insisted schools are safe for children.
The Government intends for English primary schools to open for face-to-face learning today, and for secondary schools to follow later this month.
Teaching unions have warned that schools are not safe, with most people still waiting to be vaccinated and a mutant strain of the virus spreading fast.
Krissi Carter, headteacher of the Burton Borough School in Newport, said: "My opinion is that schools should only close when it is absolutely necessary, as from student/staff/parent voice work we have done, face-to-face learning is best.
"I can’t speak for my primary colleagues but as a secondary head, I do think the delay in having all students back in this January so that we can properly look at the details of the mass testing/lateral flow tests and its accuracy is the correct one.
"We want our parents to be able to make an informed decision when they decide whether to give consent for their child. Although as a secondary school we are only required to provide ‘some remote learning’ for years 7 to 10, we will be offering students in all year groups their full timetable online via Teams – unless there are any surprise announcements that mean we can’t.
"We put a huge amount of effort into getting this set up during the first lockdown as we could foresee a situation like the one we find ourselves in now. There is still much to be learnt about Covid-19, especially with the new variant.
"I think a big step forward would be to have teachers on the priority list for the vaccine as there are clearly many members of the profession who are very worried at the moment from the developments over the last few days."
