Watford Labour has slammed the Government’s late-notice decision to delay the reopening of primary schools.

Primary schools in Watford, Hertsmere, Three Rivers and Broxbourne are among the “few” areas that education secretary Gavin Williamson said would have to delay their reopening in the Spring term.

The education secretary said the decision for select areas was a “last resort” and the majority of areas in England will have schools opened as planned on Monday (January 4).

As a result, primary schools in the affected areas had to scrap current plans,and will stay shut to all but vulnerable children and those of key workers for the start of term.

Headteachers will have begun to communicate with parents, but the timescale is currently unclear on when they will reopen for in-person education.

And while Watford Labour believe it is important to prioritise teachers and other key workers for the vaccine, they criticised the last-minute decision, giving near to just one working day to create new plans for primary education.

North Watford county councillor and Leggatts councillor Asif Khan, said: “This is another education U-turn and another government failure in dealing with this pandemic.

“Teachers have been put into an impossible position to deal with a virulent strain when they are not being prioritised for the vaccine as key workers. Teachers, alongside NHS workers, need to be prioritised for the vaccine to ensure children do not keep missing out on education because of the government’s failures and painfully delayed decision making.

“Likewise, extra support needs to be provided - all children should be given accessed to IT resources and the government needs to support pupils who qualify for free school meals. The current situation only covers school holidays - we need to help children not lose out on vital nutrition as well as education.”

Cllr Judi Billing, leader of the opposition Labour group in Hertfordshire, said: “I really couldn’t sleep last night.  As a parent, grandparent, concerned citizen and leader of the Herts County Council Labour Group, I was consumed with a mixture of fury and dread after listening to the government’s latest pronouncements about schools restarting over the next couple of weeks.

“For me the main points are these: The test and trace regime has been a fairly monumental failure and is now pretty much discredited.  I have absolutely no confidence that mass testing at schools will protect the schoolteachers and support staff, children or their families and communities.

“Most of the teachers and support staff as parts of their Tier 4 local communities have spent Christmas like all of isolated from their families and friends.  But unlike the rest of us they are now expected to put themselves in massive danger of infection in their schools at a time when the Covid-19 is clearly spreading out of control throughout our local towns and villages.

“Just before Christmas the dreadful Minister of State for Education, Gavin Williamson was actually threatening school heads and local authorities for being concerned about their staff, children and families.  It was appalling then and is worse now.”

She added that all teachers and staff should be offered a vaccination before they go near their schools – and called it a “scandal” that it wasn’t offered already.

Regardless Cllr Terry Douris, cabinet member for Education, Libraries and Localism, promised schools would be supported during this time.

And the National Education Union (NEU) equally blasted the Government for their decision of continuing in-person education, as they suggested a longer period of online working for all schools could “suppress virus levels”.

Joyce Field and Barhey Singh NEU Hertfordshire’s joint branch secretaries said: “We are further concerned that some areas in Hertfordshire are under the new restrictions, yet neighbouring areas are not.  This will further increase transmission of this highly infectious COVID variant with pupils and staff moving from area to area depending on their school’s location. Therefore, the same restrictions ought to apply to the whole of Hertfordshire.”