The @NEU has been accused of scaremongering because it believes that 1st June is not safe for schools to reopen. Powerful forces have been mobilised to misrepresent our position and undermine mine and @cyclingkev motivations as Joint General Secretaries of the @NEUnion.

Today members of the Government’s SAGE committee break ranks to express their concerns about easing of lockdown measures without fully functioning test, track, trace and isolate system being in place and working well.

Professor John Edwards, of Govt’s SAGE committee, says: ‘We cannot relax our guard by very much at all’ referring to the UK’s 5th highest levels of incidence of infections in the world - 8 thousand new infections a day in England not counting care homes and hospitals.

Professor John Edmunds, member of SAGE committee; ‘I think at the moment, with relatively high incidence and relaxing the measures and also with an untested track and trace system, I think we are taking some risk here’. (Relaxing the lockdown measures)

Another SAGE committee member, Professor Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Welcome Trust, has said that COVID 19 is spreading too fast to lift the lockdown in England and that test, trace and isolate has to fully working and capable of dealing with any surge immediately.

Professor Peter Hornby, member of SAGE said this morning that there does not need to be a long delay - no longer than 2 to 3 weeks, to enable a safer exit from lockdown with a test, trace and isolate system working properly.

Professor Peter Hornby, member of SAGE, coming to the same conclusion of independent SAGE, who conclude, in their latest report on school openings that delaying school opening by two weeks would halve the chance of a child being infected, and of infecting others.

We asked the govt. for modelling of its assumptions of school opening. Waiting for weeks, we did our own review of the international evidence of COVID 19 and education: https://neu.org.uk/media/10436/view

At all points we have engaged with the evidence. The @NEUnion wants schools to open more widely. We know how vital schools are to children, particularly vulnerable children. We want an orderly, planned opening. This will not be the case on Monday.