Government scrap plans for schools to reopen before end of summer term

9 June 2020, 12:52

The move is a huge u-turn in the country's plans to get primary schools up and running before the end of term.

The Government has announced that the initial plan to reopen all primary schools for a few weeks before the summer break is no longer viable.

For weeks we've been told that they hoped all primary aged children would spend around four weeks back in education following months of lockdown, before the summer break happened mid-July.

However, the Government has gone back on these plans and have now left the decision with the individuals' schools.

The initial idea of returning to education before the end of the summer has come under criticism from headteachers’ leaders who believe initial plans have never been a practical possibility.

The Health Secretary Matt Hancock led the Downing Street briefing yesterday and revealed that secondary schools in England are likely to not reopen as early as September.

This is because the Government "still need to work out" how this will be achieved as it will "require ingenuity".

The scrapping of plans to reopen all primary school come after years reception, year 1 and year 6 started returning to schools in England last week.

Because of the new decision, this will mean that children in the other year groups will be off until September, when the new school year starts.

The Education Secretary is also expected to announce today that primary schools will not have to prepare for all children returning soon, as initially hoped.

He also plans to go into details about all of the latest figures of pupils in England who have returned to school.

Social distancing measures enforced by the Government have limited the capacity of primary and secondary schools.

Headteachers across the country have been concerned throughout lockdown that the initial plans to send children back to school were not a realistic possibility.

As well as the education announcements, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to hold a cabinet meeting later today to finalise the next steps of coming out of lockdown.