THE PRESIDENT of a Bradford teaching union has said the Government must implement a reliable coronavirus ‘test, track and trace’ system before he feels secondary schools can be reopened safely.

“This disease hasn’t gone away,” said Ian Murch, president of the National Education Union in Bradford.

“If someone says ‘Don’t worry, it’ll be ready’, it won’t have been run in a pilot way that means anything. They didn’t even test children (in the Isle of Wight app test).”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock yesterday announced that the NHS Test and Trace system is to start from 9am today. Patients who test positive will be asked who they have been in contact with.

The latest advice from the Department for Education (DfE) says secondary schools, due to reopen from June 15 to pupils sitting GCSEs and A-levels next year, should only have a quarter of Year 10 and Year 12 pupils in at any one time to reduce transmission risks.

The Government’s new guidance says schools should practise social distancing by keeping pupils two metres apart from each other where possible.

The use of public transport for school travel should be “minimised” with pupils encouraged to walk or cycle, according to the advice.

Staggered start and end times should be introduced to take into account the likelihood of pupils mixing with each other and coming into contact with other people on the journey to and from school.

The guidelines say the Government “cannot return more pupils to secondary school at this time” - but this position “will be kept under review”.

But Mr Murch warned that even a quarter of these year groups will be a “challenge” in the ongoing pandemic. He told the Telegraph & Argus: “It’s changed the lives of many people in Bradford. We have to be careful.

“The infection rate of the disease is still high.

“The Government are not people who work in a school, who understand how children behave. Teachers do understand that and that’s why they’re concerned about bringing children into school.

“It’s not wrong to bring some children into school in a controlled way.

“The idea that a quarter of secondary school pupils is not very much, it’ll be at least 60 and probably 90 children going in at once. That’s a bit of a challenge, especially if you’re having to use public transport. But to bring in children a few at a time, we could stagger children to come in in smaller groups.

“It’s going to be quite a while before things get back to normal.The main assumption is that children will have to learn how to work at home. The coming into school for the time being is to support that work.”

Councillor Imran Khan, portfolio holder for Education, Employment and Skills, said: “The vast majority of secondary schools across Bradford district are Academies or Free Schools, and as such, are independent of the council. However, we are looking closely at the latest government guidance and working with all the secondary schools across the district to support them to make decisions on safely increasing contact with Year 10 and, where applicable, Year 12 pupils.

“Our approach to opening primary schools to more children has consistently been that school leaders are best placed to decide how and when that should happen safely and we back them on that. The same principle applies to secondary schools.”