There are only a few days left of term, but debate over whether London schools should remain open has begun.

Yesterday (Sunday, December 13), Greenwich Council announced it would be advising the borough's schools to close from this evening, following a rise in cases.

Islington Council followed suit this morning, with Waltham Forest also recommending schools move to online learning "as soon as possible".

At lunchtime today, a spokesperson for Richmond Council said they were "not proactively following Greenwich" at the moment, but acknowledged it was a fast-moving situation.

They said: "At the moment we are supporting schools to remain open and many of our schools have expressed a wish to do that. We will deal with individual situations and outbreaks as they arise by following Public Health advice, as we have done since September, with schools moving to their home learning offer where groups of pupils need to self-isolate."

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Shortly afterwards, it was announced that London would be under Tier 3 restrictions from Wednesday morning.

But council leader Cllr Gareth Roberts said: "At present there are no plans to close any of our schools and we expect them to remain open until the end of term, which is going to be a matter of days anyway."

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has urged the government to consider shutting all secondary schools and colleges early ahead of Christmas.

But the Prime Minister's official spokesman said the government expects schools to be open to the end of term.

Twickenham MP, and Liberal Democrat spokesperson for health, Munira Wilson asked Health Secretary Matt Hancock in the House of Commons whether he should reconsider Christmas measures in light of the "alarming numbers."

Professor Kevin Fenton, London Regional Director for Public Health England said that the number of coronavirus cases in the capital has "increased significantly over the past two weeks."

He said: "We are now in a situation of exponential growth which, if left unchecked, would lead to a rapid escalation in cases and hospitalisations that could overwhelm our NHS services over the festive period and into the New Year.

"Whilst no one wants to see London under tighter restrictions, the stark reality of the situation means we have no choice. Londoners have shown fantastic resilience in combating this virus to date and we all now have a key role to play in limiting its impact on ourselves and our loved ones over the coming weeks."

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