Th question here is going to be what level of risk we’re comfortable with. We’re just not going to get to zero risk any time soon, and vaccines/treatments are a long way away. Something will have to give. https://twitter.com/SchoolsWeek/status/1248841962280665089

Also worth remembering the lockdown was never about eliminating risk and avoiding all infection, it was about giving NHS chance to cope with infection rates. Short of absolute lockdown for months, we cannot eliminate risk of infection, however much we would like to.

Which means that the condition for opening schools, however hard it is, cannot be zero risk to staff and children. There is always risk in schools. The questions has to be about how much risk, to who, how/if it can be managed, and at what point those things become possible

Those Heads making bold statements about never putting staff in harm's way - you do right. Pretty much every Head feels the same. But if we're not careful here we paint ourselves into an impossible rhetorical corner.

And (perhaps the most difficult bit)... that's kind of our collective duty, too. We must protect those at highest risk, sure, but ultimately we're public servants and if instructed to do this by government then that's kind of what we signed up for when we took the state shilling

And it's our part in the shared burden currently falling most heavily on the shoulders of people with a lot less security than us in edcation, who are currently living with this managed risk every day, doing their bit to keep us safe, fed and comfortable.

So the question, at what point does the risk become manageable? When we get there, where Heads can protect staff as much as is practically possible, then the opening schools seems an obligation we have to at least offer those who have done so much for us throughout lockdown

Of course, many parents might decide not take up the offer. That's their call.

PS it's a no to opening schools through the holidays. Teachers and Heads have worked, and are working, hard enough. They need a break.