TODAY, my union, the National Education Union, sent an unprecedented message to its 450,000 members. We have told them them that we do not believe it is safe for them to return to teaching full classes on Monday and that we advise them to contact their headteacher and say that they are available to work from home and to work with key worker and vulnerable children in school.

This is not something we wanted to do. Hardworking teachers, leaders and support staff don’t want to refuse to return to full classes and our union, committed to the promotion of education for all, does not want to advise them to do this.

However, we have been forced to act, in the face of intolerable incompetence from a government which has mishandled this crisis at every stage. 

I say forced because I know exactly where I would like to be on Monday morning and that is in my classroom, teaching my class. Yet I, hundreds of thousands of other educators, and our union, do not believe that this is a safe option because of the failure by Boris Johnson and his government to control the spread of coronavirus.

We have repeatedly asked the government to work with us to make schools and colleges safe but the logic of a system which puts the financial benefit of the few before the safety and welfare of the many, has seen them ignore us again and again.

Since last June, we have been asking them to invest in additional staff and space to make social distancing possible. This would have turned around the situation in education and ensured every child had continuity of education throughout the crisis. They ignored us.

In September, we called on them to implement a proper recovery plan, including the use of blended learning to ensure our children miss as little as possible of their education. They ignored us.

In October, we called for a circuit break over half term, to reduce rapidly rising infection rates and prevent chaos in the autumn term as schools, classes and bubbles were repeatedly opened and closed as they were hit by the virus. They ignored us.

In November, we called for schools and colleges to be included in the national lockdown, as all the scientific evidence showed that, without such measures, it would be ineffective. They ignored us.

We also called for them to adopt the proposals set out in the Independent Sage Urgent Plan for Safer Schools. These measures would have dramatically improved safety in all our schools and colleges and potentially prevented the rise in the run-up to Christmas. Once again, they ignored us.

The fact is, this government never had any interest in listening to education professionals, to scientists or to trade unions, all of whom were willing to work together to minimise the impact of Covid, whilst supporting our children’s education.

However, on December 22, they went one step further when they chose to ignore the advice of their own Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies that reopening schools and colleges in January would lead to the R rate remaining above 1 and a growth in infection, hospitalisation and death.

This advice was withheld by government and only published on December 31 and this has been the key trigger for the position we have had to take. It is bad enough to ignore the largest organisation of education professionals in this country but to ignore their own scientific advisers on a matter of public health, where lives hang in the balance, is completely unforgivable.

The government may ignore Sage and may put lives at risk but we will not. Because we care about the children we teach, because we care about their families and their communities, we will act.

We will act not because we want to, but because we have to, in order to make schools safe and to protect communities.

We will be working, but working from home as it is unsafe to enter schools and colleges with full classes.

This is an individual action we take, exercising our individual legal right not to enter an unsafe workplace, but as we take it, we call for your solidarity, for you to take a stand for the safety of the communities we all live and work in.

We welcome the support we have had from across the labour movement in taking this difficult step, from sister unions, from councillors, from MPs.

Please raise your voices with us and sign our joint petition with Unison.

We must never again let this government treat our lives with such disdain and such dismissal. We must organise in every workplace, and build the solidarity and collectivity which we need to protect our communities.

Gawain Little is a primary school teacher and sits on the NEU executive.