Newark: Plans for primary schools to reopen to all year groups before summer holidays scrapped today by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson
Plans for primary schools to reopen to all year groups before the summer have been scrapped today.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced it was no longer possible for all younger pupils to return to the classroom before the break.
He said, instead, the government wanted to see schools who had the capacity to bring back students to do so.
Mr Williamson told the House of Commons: "We continue to follow the best scientific advice and believe that this cautious, phased return is the most sensible course of action to take.
"While we are not able to welcome all primary children back for a full month before the summer, we continue to work with the sector on the next steps, where we would like to see schools who have the capacity to bring back more children in those smaller class sizes to do so, if they are able to do, before the summer holidays.
"We will be working to bring all children back to school in September.
"I know students who are due to take exams in 2021 will have experienced considerable disruption to their education this year and we are committed to doing all we can to minimise the effects of this."
Mr Williamson said current advice stated all schools could open but the government was willing to shut clusters of them if further coronavirus cases were to arise, and that ministers would not hesitate to act if the rate of infection reached over one in some areas.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said: "I don’t think we have ever underestimated the challenges that this poses for parents and just how onerous the lockdown has been on parents and society in general.
"We have been taking steps to get more children into school, that’s important for their education, it’s also important for parents. But we have also said that we need to move forward in a cautious way and take a phased approach."