A day after the UK death toll rose to over 100,000, I now hear with utter astonishment that the prime minister wants to move towards a full reopening of schools in just a few weeks’ time. 

I pride myself on being a logical, reflective person with the ability to compartmentalise when faced with difficult situations. But nothing about this plan to fully return to school seems logical or reflective. It seems rushed and ill-thought-through, and that leaves me feeling scared and anxious. 

Of course, I want to return to work as normal. Remote learning is not easy and provides little job satisfaction. But I want to feel safe. 

Coronavirus: I don’t feel safe in school

Today’s announcement followed on from an announcement yesterday that there was a strong case for primaries to reopen after half-term.

The call to reopen primaries fully comes following a study by Public Health England that began in June 2020. The study concluded that Covid infection rates were low, following partial and full reopening of primary schools in England.

Only 131 of a potential 20,832 primary schools in England were involved in this study, giving it a very low sample of just 0.63 per cent. 

I’m no scientist, but that seems a pretty poor sample to be deciding the safety of all primary schools in England, especially when you consider that this study took place in the summer term.

I have spoken to a teacher whose school took part in the study. She said that it still had low numbers of children in school in the summer term and spent a lot of time outdoors. 

Another crucial factor that appears to have been completely ignored is that the study ended in November - before the new strain took hold.

Do I feel safe about fully reopening schools, just as before, with no further measures taken? In a word: no.

Denying the need for preventative measures in schools just doesn’t make sense. I can clearly see that systems are in place elsewhere to reduce the number of people in an area, to keep the flow of people moving and to limit the spread of Covid through the air by wearing masks. How can that not apply in schools?

Loss of trust in the government

What would make me feel safer? Trusting the government would help, but I fear that boat has sailed.

Boris Johnson said in his press briefing last night that his government had done everything it could to try to avoid the tragic outcome of 100,000 Covid deaths. Really?

Early in the pandemic, my class were worried because Brits were being flown back and quarantined in our local hospital. I told them not to worry: that we were an island, that the government would close the borders and anyone coming into the country would have to quarantine. That’s not hindsight - that was me in my class back in February 2020, reassuring them that our government would protect us.

On the contrary, the government’s handling of the pandemic has been shambolic and ineffective. At every turn, it has acted too slowly - being reactive rather than proactive. Lockdown came too late, World Health Organization advice to close the borders was ignored for almost a year, and who can forget the utter chaos of the return to school after Christmas?

Before Christmas, the government was at pains to tell us that schools were safe. It later said it hadn’t known about the new Covid strain, which was tearing through the South East, when education secretary Gavin Williamson threatened a handful of schools with court action if they didn’t open for the last week of term. 

But that wasn’t true, as it turned out, because health secretary Matt Hancock had talked about the new strain in Parliament earlier. 

The problem, of course, is that once trust is gone, it’s very difficult to believe what you are being told, especially when what you’re being told is a lie. Teachers are very good at sniffing out the truth.

Teachers need some guarantees

So, how to move forward?

Like many other teachers, I don’t feel safe about schools fully reopening without further measures in place. I want some guarantees:

• Acknowledge that Covid is spread in schools.
• Low case numbers in the community. 
• All school staff and children over the age of 6 to wear masks at all times.
• The number of pupils in a classroom must be kept low, with a maximum of 15.
• Compulsory testing of all children showing symptoms - rather than simply isolating, as that doesn’t allow us to properly track and trace.

Teachers want to be back in school as normal, but things are not normal. We need to put measures in place that allow us all to return, yes, quickly, but, more importantly, as safely as possible. 

I want the government to stop gaslighting me and recognise that my reluctance for a swift full reopening is not some sort of leftie resistance. Rather, it’s rooted firmly in the belief that I am not being protected at work, which might ultimately to lead to my death, or that of one of my immediate family through close contact with me.

Laura Baxter is a curriculum leader at a primary school in Birkenhead