Schools face being sued if they close early for Christmas

Schools were threatened with legal action by Government ministers on Friday night amid growing fears that many will close early in an attempt to reduce the spread of Covid-19 among teenagers before Christmas.

At least one council has already told some of its schools that it would support them to move to online learning only for the last week of term, and secondary schools across London and the South East are expected to tell parents that they will be closing early for the holidays. 

Headteachers whose schools do stay open also intend to turn a blind eye if parents choose to keep their children at home, The Telegraph understands.   

However, senior sources at the Department for Education (DfE) warned schools and councils that it would be prepared to apply for High Court injunctions to force them to stay open.   

Presdales School, an academy in Hertfordshire, is the first school in the country to be told it could be taken to court over its plans to move to remote learning at the end of term. 

According to Office for National Statistics infection data for England as a whole, rates of infection are now highest among secondary school age children – those aged 11 to 16. 

Ministers announced on Friday that for those who have come into contact with someone confirmed to have coronavirus, the amount of time to self isolate will be cut from 14 to 10 days. This means Monday is effectively the cut off point when someone could come into contact with an infected person and still spend Christmas with their extended family. 

In a bid to keep schools open, mass testing is being rolled out at secondary schools in parts of London, Kent and Essex. 

But the announcement that mobile testing units are urgently being sent to schools across the capital is said to have “spooked” parents.

Headteachers are braced for a marked drop in attendance during the final week of term as parents “vote with their feet” and keep their children at home rather than risk having to cancel Christmas plans if their child gets infected.

Parents who fail to send their children to school next week are unlikely to be fined, The Telegraph understands, meaning families will effectively be given a free hand to act as they please.

Geoff Barton, general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders, said that headteachers will not be minded to fine parents who fail to send their children to school next week.

“What the season of goodwill is definitely not about is sending fines out to parents,” he said.

Ordinarily, children are only allowed to miss school if they are too ill to go in or if they have advance permission from the headteachers.

Parents can be issued with £60 fines if their children are absent with no good reason, which doubles to £120 if it is not paid within 21 days. If it is not paid after 28 days, parents face prosecution by their local authority.

But it is up to individual headteachers to choose how they record children’s absence and whether they report it to the local authority.

Downing Street has insisted that keeping classrooms open is a “national priority” and ministers are keen to avoid any more periods of closure after children missed up to six months of school during the national lockdown earlier this year.

The Education Secretary was given emergency powers under the Coronavirus Act to override the desires of a school’s headteacher and governing body and force them to stay open.

Presdales School, which has since confirmed that it will remain open for all pupils until next Friday, was sent a “minded to direct” letter from the DfE and told that unless it backed down it would face legal action.

Government officials are in contact with Essex County Council chiefs in an attempt to pressure them to change course after they announced that they will support headteachers in Basildon who want to move to remote learning next week.

The Welsh Government has told schools to move to online learning from Monday. 

In Stockholm, Sweden, which was noted for taking a more relaxed approach to the pandemic in the first wave, parents have been told that all school pupils aged 14-16 will switch to online learning for the rest of the year to try and stem a second wave of the virus.

The Government is also adamant that exams should go ahead next summer, and any further periods of school closures could throw this into doubt.

This week the Scottish Government announced that all exams would be cancelled for the second year in a row. 

Mr Barton said that the Health Secretary’s “dramatic” and last-minute announcement about mass testing in schools “may have the unintended consequence of spooking everyone”.

He went on: “There is an increasing sense that young people just aren’t coming into school.  I think there will be a lot of parents who will take decisions into their own hands.

“They will just vote with their feet and say ‘I would prefer my children to be at home, I don’t want the risk of my child being in school’.”

On Friday, the DfE sought to reassure parents, with the regional school commissioner for the East and North East of England saying that the testing programme "is not directly linked to transmission in schools or colleges".  

 A DfE spokesperson said: “We are prioritising children’s and young people’s education and wellbeing, by keeping nurseries, schools, colleges and universities open.

“Schools should work with families to ensure children are attending full time. As usual, fines will sit alongside this, but only as a last resort and where there is no valid reason for absence.”

On Friday night, BMAT, a multi-academy trust which runs 12 schools in London and Essex, said that all its secondary schools will switch to remote learning on Tuesday, and end term the following day "in a bid to save Christmas".

Its primary schools will also finish term on Wednesday.