Local Member of the Welsh Parliament, Laura Anne Jones, today welcomed the Welsh Government’s U Turn on allowing pupils in years 7, 8 and 9 to return to school before Easter.
This follows a call by Laura Anne Jones for more clarity on this issue during the Business Statement in the Welsh Parliament.
In her statement, Laura Anne Jones said:
“Children and young people across England are looking forward to returning to the classroom from Monday.”
“In Wales, most secondary school pupils are completely in the dark about when they might return, except that it wont be until the Summer term.”
“The Welsh Government hasn’t given a commitment that return to school will be full time. In your own Government’s alert system, schools are supposed to remain open to all pupils at alert level 4.”
“Most councils meet your criteria for levels 2 or 3, with incident rates similar to those in late September. With the rapid progress in vaccination and now lateral flow testing for school staff, many families can’t understand why schools remain closed for the majority of pupils.”
“Can you tell us when the Education Minister or First Minister will be in a position to make a clear, unambiguous statement about reopening schools to all pupils?”
Laura Anne Jones commented:
“This is a welcome U turn by the Welsh Labour Government on Years 7, 8 and 9 following an appeal by me in the Business Statement yesterday and pressure from the Welsh Conservatives,”
“I am pleased they have listened to our calls and acted accordingly.”