Keep schools closed until May
149,470 people signed this petition to the UK Parliament after it opened on 11 February 2021; it closed on 11 August 2021. The Government responded on 15 March 2021. MPs debated it in Westminster Hall on 15 March 2021.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Keep schools closed until May
Please don’t send students back until we know we have had the priority groups vaccinated such as the elderly, the extremely clinically vulnerable, and those with underlying health conditions.
Even as Covid cases are going down, students do not feel safe. Please lower the risk of the cases increasing again after we go back. Many students are scared, fearing that cases may rise again and this can be passed on to parents. This would help prevent the spread of the variants of the virus.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 15 March 2021; the petitions site lists the Department for Education as responsible. Its summary:
With safety measures in schools, the success of vaccination rollout and decrease in infection rates and hospitalisations, the Government has decided that pupils can return to education from 8 March.
The opening 379 words of the 768-word response:
The education of children and young people is a national priority. The unavoidable disruption to education caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will have affected children’s education and wellbeing. Enabling pupils to return to face to face education is key to helping them, and the country as whole, thrive in the future. As pupils return, schools will be supported with over £1 billion to help pupils to recover missed education and development.
At the beginning of 2021, when we asked schools to limit attendance to vulnerable children and young people and the children of critical workers, the rate of infections was rising quickly, and the NHS was in danger of being overwhelmed. It was a vital intervention to bring down the number of social contacts and was not because schools had become inherently less safe. At that time, we said that we would return all pupils to school as soon as the health situation improved. As a result of the efforts the country has made, the Prime Minister’s four tests have been met and it is now possible for schools to welcome back pupils in all year groups from 8 March.
By 12 March, 23 million people had received their first vaccine dose and 1 million people had received their second dose. Ninety percent of people aged 70 and over, which is the age group with the highest risk of complications from COVID-19 infection, have had their first dose. Public Health England (PHE) has been studying the effect of the vaccine roll out. It has found encouraging evidence that people who have been vaccinated are much less likely to need to go to hospital and are less likely to die if they do catch COVID-19. Our latest information also suggests that infection rates across the country have fallen across all age groups.
The longer children are out of the classroom the bigger the effect on their education, health and wellbeing. The Chief Medical Officer for England has recently stated that: "The chances of many children being damaged by not going to school are incredibly clear and therefore the balance of risk is very strongly in favour of children going to school because many more are likely to be harmed by not going than harmed by going, even during this pandemic."
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Where the signatures came from
Signatures came from 650 constituencies on the boundaries used until the 2024 general election. The largest number, 986, came from East Ham.
149,111 of the signatures were from the UK and 359 from elsewhere, by the location signers gave.
| Constituency | Signatures |
|---|---|
| East Ham | 986 |
| Ilford South | 944 |
| Poplar and Limehouse | 813 |
| Blackburn | 804 |
| Birmingham, Hodge Hill | 799 |
| Birmingham, Hall Green | 773 |
| Bethnal Green and Bow | 770 |
| West Ham | 768 |
| Slough | 756 |
| Ealing North | 706 |
| Region | Signatures |
|---|---|
| London | 29,225 |
| South East | 20,716 |
| North West | 18,257 |
| West Midlands | 15,302 |
| East of England | 14,291 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 12,026 |
| South West | 10,296 |
| East Midlands | 10,040 |
| North East | 5,331 |
| Scotland | 3,478 |
| Wales | 2,729 |
| Northern Ireland | 2,033 |
Debate in Parliament
MPs debated the petition in Westminster Hall on 15 March 2021. Read the debate in Hansard. House of Commons Library debate pack.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/573621.jsonUK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
a33b4013415aea53… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
The petition's words are its creator's and the response is the Government's; this site quotes both and gives no view on either. Signature counts can still change while a petition is open. To report an error, send a correction request.