Covid-19: Schools told they can close in Essex hotspot

Secondary schools in a district with one of the country's highest rates of Covid-19 cases have been told they can send pupils home next week.

Basildon in Essex has England's third-highest rate with 433 cases per 100,000 people in the week to 5 December.

Essex County Council said head teachers will decide if their school closes.

But the leader of Basildon Council, Gavin Callaghan, said the county council should have made the "tough call" and closed schools.

Ray Gooding, cabinet member for education at the Conservative-controlled county council, said: "Our approach is to work with head teachers, schools and school communities, listen to them, and not impose blanket decisions on them."

The county council said if a school closed it would still be open for children of key workers and for vulnerable children.

Data from the authority suggested nearly 40% of cases in the district were linked to schools, and just under half of secondary schools in the Basildon district had either fully or partially moved to remote learning already.

Mat Harper, head teacher at Beauchamps School in Wickford, in the Basildon district, said 923 pupils were self-isolating and the school's closure on Monday was "unavoidable".

But he said at a meeting of head teachers and the county council last Wednesday "none of us supported the blanket closure of schools" and preferred the school-by-school approach.

There will be a meeting with Basildon's primary head teachers on Thursday, but it was expected a similar position will be adopted.

Mr Callaghan, the Labour leader of Basildon Council, wrote to the county council last week proposing all schools in the district close from 11 December.

"No head teacher is going to say they are in favour of blanket closures publicly. It's not their job to create these policies," he said.

"Councils and governments are there to lead and make tough calls, not push the difficult stuff down on teachers to decide."

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