Covid: What on earth is happening with schools in January?

We have a new Mutant strain of Covid running rampant in UK schools right now. Christmas was cancelled. Is it safe to send your child to school? What is the government doing about it?

Last night former education secretary and cabinet minister Michael Gove said he is "confident" a staggered return to secondary schools in England can go ahead as planned. The government announced that primary schoolchildren, children of key workers and secondary school students in years 11 and 13 are to return in the beginning of January, and the rest to return at a later date.

But Mr Gove said the issue was still being reviewed and ultimately subject to change as a result of concerns over the spread of the new coronavirus strain. Wales and Scotland have delayed or revised the start of the new term. Northern Ireland schools are due back next week.

We think that week could easily turn into months and that the best thing to do would be to shutdown schools completely and conduct all lessons online. Teachers and their families (and pupils) lives are at stake. A secondary school science teacher for example, may teach year 7 top set biology in period one, bottom set year 8 chemistry in period two, middle physics from year 9 in period three etc and potentially be exposed to hundreds of bubbles in a day. The R rate and the spread of the virus is on an upward trend, and many experts think that schools are one of the most significant factors responsible for the rise, especially as many young people are asymptomatic and show no symptoms.

But what do you think. Do you think it’s a good idea for schools to return in January, business as usual? Or do you think that the government need to do more to protect its citizens and close the schools in spite of the short term economic consequences. We’d love to hear your comments below.