Schools: Coronavirus

(asked on 25th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the four tiered approach to school opening will remain in place when the autumn 2020 lockdown restrictions end on 2 December 2020.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 30th November 2020

The four-tiered approach to school opening will not remain in place when the national restrictions end on 2 December 2020. On 27 November 2020, the Department updated the guidance to reflect how schools and nurseries should operate under the new tiers to keep staff and students as safe as possible. We have implemented a simple and clear contingency framework, setting out the decision-making process and nature of restrictions that would be implemented in the exceptional circumstances in which further restrictions on education could be required as a scientific last resort.

The Government has made it a national priority that schools and nurseries should continue to operate as normally as possible during the COVID-19 outbreak. This remains the default position for all areas, irrespective of local restriction tiers.

Such measures will be implemented in the fewest number of schools and nurseries required, for the shortest time. Given the considerable benefits to children of continued face to face teaching, the threshold for moving to any restrictions will remain exceptionally high.

The education contingency framework can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-contingency-framework-for-education-and-childcare-settings.

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