DfE failure to plan for Covid school closures was ‘extraordinary dereliction of duty’, academy head tells inquiry | Covid inquiry
The leader of one of the largest academy confidences in the UK described the education department in which he could not make any planning for school closures before locking in March 2020.
United Learning’s General Manager Jon Coles said the British COVİD-19 investigation was that there was a zero planning for closing because the priority kept the priority open when he read a statement from Educational Secretary Gavin Williamson.
Coles, who has been a senior officer for 15 years in DFE, where he was the General Manager of Schools and Education Standards, gave evidence as a part of the eight modules of the investigation focusing on the impact of pandema on children and young people.
“I read that Gavin Williamson said that he had not planned any planning for the closure of the school to the closure of the school, because the priority was to keep the schools open.
“When I read this, I almost fell from my chair.
Coles, the investigation from the beginning of March 2020 from the beginning of him and his team began to meet and discuss the possible challenges of Covid’in said. “As of March 10, we have started to communicate with what we could see that we could really go down the track on a daily basis,” he said. “And on March 10/11, we told schools: ‘We can see that schools will close in the near future.’ I don’t think this is based on common sense.
In the absence of any direction from DFE, trust began to run web seminars on how to provide distance education for schools, and as he had to isolate more and more in the spread of the child and staff viruses, he advised the protection in a way that becomes an important difficulty.
Trust also suggested DFE as an alternative to what could be for children at free school meals, if schools are closed and missed coupons. “These were all started by itself, Co Coles said. “Apparently, DFE did not take any direction because it expected a direction from 10 before starting planning.
In a statement to the investigation in 2023, Williamson said that he did not want DFE officials to prepare an assessment of the impact of school closures at the beginning of 2020, because the recommendations at that time were “closing” and did not assign no 10.
On March 16, he described a “24 -hour maritime change ve, which moved from keeping schools open from keeping them open on March 17, and an announcement was made to close them the next day.
When the exams were canceled, Coles had caused concerns about their plans to give GCSE and A grades notes using an algorithm based on past school performance. He described this as a “slow shooting car accident ..
The investigation continues on Tuesday, and the module is planned to last four weeks.
