SEVERAL primary schools in St Helens have delayed the wider opening after the coronavirus reproduction number rose to above 1 in the North West, a teachers’ union secretary has said.
The reproduction number, or the ‘R’ value, is the number of people one infected person will infect, on average.
On Friday, analysis from Public Health England (PHE) in conjunction with Cambridge University showed the R value in the North West had risen to 1.01, higher than anywhere in the country.
The R number in St Helens has not been published, but it is known that the number of infections and deaths has fallen dramatically in recent weeks.
Friday’s PHE analysis did cause some concern with headteachers locally though, according to Andy Howard, secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) for St Helens.
Mr Howard said: “As far as I’m aware, headteachers, in consultation with their chairs of governors have re-looked at the risk assessments and I think some schools have chosen to put back the wider opening by a week or two weeks.
“But every school is different, they have different requirements because the key worker and vulnerable groups are growing in most schools, so everyone was on a different trajectory and a different path anyway.
“At the end of the day, headteachers and governors know their school better than anybody, they know what they can do.
“And as I say, everyone’s got different numbers of children in so it all depends on what their capacity is to have more children back, because key workers and vulnerable children remains the priority.”
The analysis PHE published on Friday has prompted some areas to delay the wider opening of schools, most of which have remained open throughout the pandemic for the children of key workers and those who are vulnerable.
In Warrington, the local authority said over the weekend that it had reached a “joint decision” to postpone the reopening of all primaries until June 15.
Council chiefs in St Helens released a statement on Sunday, saying their position remained unchanged.
Kath O’Dwyer, chief executive of St Helens Council, said the local authority will “continue to support our schools in whatever decision is right for their communities based on their individual circumstances and risk assessments in relation to buildings, pupils and staff.”
She said the decision was based on advice from Public Health, which highlighted the reduced number of infections and deaths in the area.
Sue Forster, director of Public Health for St Helens, said testing data shows that in the past few weeks the number of weekly positive cases in St Helens has reduced to under five, from a peak of 180.
This local data was shared with headteachers over the weekend, Mr Howard said, to alleviate some of the concerns.
“Undoubtedly, there’s been a lot of concern,” Mr Howard said.
“Over the weekend we’ve had correspondence from the teaching unions and the non-teaching unions expressing concerns and most headteachers over the weekend have been in touch with their heads of governors to discuss the situation.
“For a lot of schools things remain unchanged, especially when we’ve had a bit more detail from Public Health around St Helens, which paints a slightly different picture to other places in the North West.
“I think that went some way to clarify and to alleviate some concerns but it’s very much an individual school approach, albeit a corporate approach in that the local authority is supporting heads and chairs of governors in their decision making.”
Mr Howard praised the teaching unions and the local authority for their support of schools in recent weeks.
The council’s position on schools has been criticised by The Independents, led by Rainhill councillor James Tasker and featuring two former Labour councillors, but Mr Howard believes they have taken the right approach.
He said: “I think a regional approach is sensible but it’s better to leave it to individual schools to make those decisions.
“But we’re doing it in collaboration with the local authority. I’ve got to say, the local authority and the unions have worked really well through this process.
“It’s been a very, very supportive process, which I think is a really positive thing because it could have been very different.”
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