The South Ribble-based teacher who chairs the health and safety group of the country’s largest education union has described the decision to fully reopen all schools on the same day next month as “a complete gamble”.
Ian Watkinson, from the National Education Union (NEU), says that the move flies in the face of the Prime Minister’s assertion that lockdown-lifting measures will be undertaken on the basis of “data not dates”.
He was speaking after Boris Johnson briefed the Commons on his plan for schools to welcome back all pupils from March 8.
They have been open only to vulnerable children and the children of key workers on all but one day so far this year.