A headteacher has told his pupils they don’t have to wear masks outside on the school yard at breaktime, in direct opposition to new guidance from the Welsh Government.
The “negative impact” of children wearing masks outside at school outweigh the limited benefit in terms of reducing spread of coronavirus, Alan Toothill, headteacher of Penyrheol Comprehensive School in Swansea said.
He said his understanding was that a number of other schools have made the same decision.
The Welsh Government said it made the new national ruling after fresh evidence from the UK’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and its own Technical Advisory Group (TAG) about coronavirus in schools. The TAG said the virus spread more easily among schoolchildren than first thought.
But Mr Toothill pointed out that the TAG has not recommended children wear masks outside at school.
He said: “Normally we would very much follow Welsh Government guidance where we can, but with this being guidance, rather than mandatory, we looked at it and after a long discussion decided, on balance, it was counter productive.”
Mr Toothill has explained his decision to parents and carers in a letter on the school website Mr Toothill.
He told them: “We will not be implementing the new guidance from the Welsh government. The main reasons for this are:
⦁ There is no mention of pupils and staff being required to wear face masks in external school areas within the TAG report.
⦁ We believe that the potential negative impact on pupil and staff wellbeing of having to wear face masks in external school areas would outweigh the potential limited additional benefit in terms of reducing transmission of the Covid-19 virus.
⦁ Members of the public do not currently have to wear face masks outdoors in Wales, so this restriction in schools would be different from what pupils have to do normally.
⦁ Our other stringent health and safety measures are working effectively to limit the number of positive Covid-19 cases among pupils and staff at Penyrheol.”
Mr Toothill said the school’s governors reached the decision “after much thought and discussion”.
Before the Welsh Government’s new and stricter guidance, it was recommended that masks should be worn in communal areas such as corridors - but not in classrooms during lessons and not outside.
Those decisions were left up to councils and schools to decide what was best for them locally.
A spokeswoman for the Welsh Government has confirmed: “For secondary school pupils, yes face coverings should be worn outside of the classroom, that includes within the school yard at break times and lunch times and at other times of the day when pupils are congregating in those areas (e.g. waiting to enter school).”
