Million Primary School Pupils Will Not Return As Planned Next Week
Wed, 30th Dec 2020 20:40
(Alliance News) - Around a million primary school pupils in some of the areas hardest hit by Covid-19 will not return to their desks as planned next week, with the government putting its U-turn down to rising infection rates and the spread of the new variant of coronavirus.
The expected staggered reopening of secondary schools in England will also be delayed, the Education Secretary announced as he said an immediate adjustment had to be made to plans for the new year return.
Gavin Williamson said students in exam years will return to secondary schools a week later than planned, from January 11, while other secondary and college students will go back full-time on January 18.
Around a million primary school pupils in some of the areas hardest hit by Covid-19 will not return to their desks as planned next week, with the Government putting its U-turn down to rising infection rates and the spread of the new variant of coronavirus.
The expected staggered reopening of secondary schools in England will also be delayed, the Education Secretary announced as he said an “immediate adjustment” had to be made to plans for the new year return.
Gavin Williamson said students in exam years will return to secondary schools a week later than planned, from January 11, while other secondary and college students will go back full-time on January 18.
BBC News
By Hannah Richardson
Published
image copyrightPA Media
Secondary schools across most of England are to remain closed for an extra two weeks for most pupils, to help regain control of coronavirus.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told the Commons that exam-year pupils would return a week earlier than their schoolmates in the week of 11 January.
In the meantime, schools will have more time to set up mass testing plans.
In a few areas with the highest infection rates, primaries would remain closed temporarily, he added.
The areas where primary schools would remain closed are: most of London, much of Essex and Kent, Hastings and Rother in East Sussex, Milton Keynes and parts of Hertfordshire.
SOME Sussex schools will not reopen in the New Year, the government announced today. Hastings and Rother are among a small number of areas in England where schools will be asked to stay shut to all but vulnerable children and those of key workers for the start of term in January. Other affected areas are in London, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent. These schools will be opened as soon as possible, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told MPs in the House of Commons yesterday. Across the rest of Sussex, primary schools will return as expected next week. But the reopening of secondary schools will be delayed.
School leaders have slammed frankly ludicrous government plans to roll-out rapid mass Covid testing across the country s 4,200 secondary schools in just days.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said government guidance on rapid tests doesn t take us much further forward because it ignores the fact that this plan and timescale are totally unrealistic .
Meanwhile the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) warned the chaotic and rushed nature of the Government s announcement, the lack of proper guidance, and an absence of appropriate support means that most tests will not be in a position to carry this out in safe and effective manner .