Commenting as Labour reveals that, at the current rate of progress, some 12 – 15-year-olds will not be vaccinated until February, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“It is important that parents and young people are offered the vaccine as quickly as possible so that they can make their decision about whether to take it, but we don’t know yet what the final take up of the vaccine will be for teens – it may never be as high as in the general population. So it is important that other measures are also pursued to control Covid in schools, including help to improve key mitigations such as better ventilation, reconsidering the current guidance on close contact isolation, and an effective track and trace systems to ensure cases are identified early.”