Page 25 - Chris Lyttle News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Emergency meeting of NI Executive to be held on Sunday night PA The Northern Ireland Executive is to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday night. It comes after four of the five power-sharing parties called for a meeting of the Executive to discuss the new strain of Covid-19 found in England. Government ministers from Sinn Fein, the Alliance Party and the SDLP issued a joint request for an Executive meeting to be held on Sunday. In a tweet, Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the Executive would meet at 9pm. The Executive will meet at 9pm tonight In a letter seen by the PA news agency, ...

BBC News Published Northern Ireland's education minister has defended his decision to reopen schools in Janaury. Teaching unions have criticised his plans which were set out on Friday. Peter Weir says his decision was taken in line with public health advice and that the executive will keep it under review. The chair of Stormont's education committee has submitted an assembly recall petition for Mr Weir to give an urgent statement on the school plans. Thirty MLAs must sign Alliance MLA Chris Lyttle's petition in order to have the assembly recalled next week. The NI Assembly is currently in r...

The Public Health Agency (PHA) has insisted that it will be staffing Track, Trace and Contact over the Christmas period. Earlier this week, Chris Lyttle, chair of the Education Committee, and several principals expressed concern that school leaders would have to take sole responsibility for dealing with Covid-infected pupils during the holidays. But the PHA has moved to assuage fears that none of its staff will be available to support parents and pupils and provide advice after all schools shut next week. "Coronavirus won't stop for Christmas and the New Year, and neither will the PHA," the s...

Post-primary transfer included in NI education review By Robbie Meredith Published image captionThe independent review was promised as part of the New Decade New Approach deal How children transfer from primary to post-primary schools is to be part of a review of Northern Ireland's education system. The review will also consider what a "single education system" would involve. The executive has now agreed the terms of reference for the review, which will be carried out by a five-person panel. However, the panel is yet to be appointed and the review is not expected to begin until May 2021. The ...

Principals have reacted with fury to the revelation that tracking and tracing for Covid-19 infections will have to be carried out by school staff over the Christmas break. Many head teachers are already at loggerheads with Education Minister Peter Weir over his refusal to close schools earlier than scheduled to stop the virus from spreading and prevent the need for self isolation. Now they have learned that the Public Health Agency's (PHA) Track and Trace staff will be unavailable during the holidays, leaving the onus on principals themselves. Diane Dawson, head of Braniel PS, hit out at the ...