Teachers are calling on the government to develop a “coordinated national plan” to ensure schools can reopen safely in September, taking into account “the many practical and logistical issues” they have raised.

In a letter to education secretary Gavin Williamson, the NASUWT teaching union has set out 13 key issues on which school staff require “urgent clarification” if they are to meet the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) standards for full reopenings next term.

They range from how schools can meet health and safety obligations, to how teacher absences should be managed, and what happens in the event of a local lockdown.

Related: Give schools Covid infection data, teachers tell DfE

In full: Your guide to September’s back-to-school plan

Viewpoint: Why schools should avoid rows and one-way systems

The issues needing clarification set out in NASUWT’s letter are:

• How will schools meet their statutory obligations to ensure the health and safety of teachers and pupils in relation to children who refuse to obey risk assessment provisions, given that the guidance states that spitting is not sufficient to prevent access?
• Will schools be provided with additional funding to ensure that classrooms, gyms, communal and dining areas, kitchens, curriculum resources and equipment, toilets and recreational areas can be cleaned regularly and appropriately throughout the day and at the beginning and end of each day?
• Can the DfE assure teachers that only trained cleaners are asked to fulfil cleaning duties, especially given the potential adverse impacts that may be caused by people not using detergents and bleaches safely?
• How will schools maintain appropriate continuity of onsite provision for pupils in the event of teacher absences?
• What arrangements for inter-agency working should schools expect to see from September?
• What additional resourcing will be available to support the provision of remote learning for pupils, including to fund additional teachers, materials, and technology to enable equality of access for all pupils?
• How will school introduce “education bubbles”, given:
  
  - the logistical challenge of securing sufficient provision of home-school transport for pupils that does not result in mixing of pupils in different year group cohorts or mixing of pupils from different schools?
  
  - the logistical and additional financial implications associated with the implementation of staggered start and finish times?
  
  - the additional cost of providing suitable home-school transport for pupils, particularly in rural areas; what additional funding will be provided to schools for this purpose, and in order to ensure that such transport is cleaned appropriately to the level and frequency that schools will require?
  
  - the additional workload and working hours implications arising from the guidance; will the DfE supply additional funding to enable extra staff to be deployed to enable schools to implement staggered start and finish times for pupils?
• What financial assistance will be available to schools to reconfigure classrooms to ensure DfE measures - such as forward-facing desks - can be enforced?
• How will the DfE support schools to deploy vulnerable teachers, including black, Asian and minority-ethnic teachers, appropriately, taking account of the additional risks they face?
• What steps will be taken in the event of further local spikes in coronavirus transmission or in the event of a local lockdown in other areas? Specifically:
  
  - How much notice can schools expect to receive? 
  
  - Who will provide schools with notice that lockdown will be required? 
  
  - What provision will schools be required to make for pupils on site? 
  
  - What provision will be made for pupils eligible for free school meals? 
  
  - What additional control measures will need to be applied in schools where they remain open to some children during the period of the local lockdown (eg, social distancing rules, PPE provision, test and trace, etc)? 
  
  - What enforcement measures will be applied to schools that do not follow the local lockdown rules? 
  
  - Will additional coronavirus funding be reinstated to assist schools in the event of a local lockdown? 
  
  - What provision will be made on the lifting of lockdown controls, including for the phased reopening of schools within the lockdown area and the provision of coronavirus testing?
• What steps will be taken in the event of a confirmed case of Covid-19 within a school and what are the triggers for sending some or all pupils and staff home to self-isolate?
• In the event of a positive case of Covid-19, will the DfE make it compulsory for schools to contact the health protection teams, rather than this being optional?
• Will the DfE confirm that, as September approaches, the government will extend the priority for Covid-19 testing to include teachers?