“Thousands of schools are lacking any ventilation support leaving children learning in freezing classrooms, Ministers are unable to say how many people have responded to their teacher volunteer drive and hundreds of thousands of secondary pupils haven’t had their first vaccine. It is incompetent, complacent, and inadequate.

“Ministers must now step-up to secure our children’s learning and their futures, with a serious plan to tackle workforce absences and ventilate schools to keep children learning together in class.”

Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, responding to new data showing 310,000 children were out of school due to Covid on 6 January, with 106,000 teachers, teaching assistants and school leaders also absent

Tuesday 11 January 2022 / 2:41 PM Bridget Phillipson / Education / Schools