Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has written to academy schools requesting them to remain open throughout the second national lockdown and the latest tier 3 period in boroughs where the local authority had asked schools to consider closing.

There have been 3 cases involving writing directly to schools asking them to remain open throughout the second national lockdown and the latest tier 3 period, where some local authorities had asked, or were considering asking, schools to move to remote education provision for the remainder of the current school term.

The 3 cases are:

• Royal London Borough of Greenwich – A letter was sent out to all schools in Greenwich on 14 December.
• Waltham Forest – A letter was sent out to all schools in Waltham Forest on 15 December.
• Islington – A letter was sent out to all schools in Islington on 15 December.