Primary schools to go back in June
PM targets first day of month for return to classes if infections continue to slow
PRIMARY schools are due to reopen as soon as June 1, as part of Boris Johnson’s blueprint for gradually “unlocking” Britain, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.
The Prime Minister is expected to unveil the Government’s “roadmap” out of the coronavirus lockdown in an address to the nation next Sunday, after ministers take stock of a study showing the rate of the virus’s transmission in the UK.
One of the plans being discussed to help to reopen workplaces across the country is to ask companies to routinely test asymptomatic staff as part of a national effort to track the disease and isolate those who may be infectious.
Based on the current, reduced infection rate, Mr Johnson is hoping to put teachers on three-weeks’ notice to re-open primary schools in England to all pupils on June 1, Whitehall sources said.
Year 10 and Year 12 pupils are then expected to form the first wave of secondary pupils returning to school at a later point, if such a move would be unlikely to increase the transmission rate over the threshold that Mr Johnson warned could result in a dangerous second peak. The earliest possible return of primary schoolchildren is intended to minimise the threat to “early years development” and help parents to return to work.
Yesterday, Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary, said: “Home learning is not easy, particularly when one or both parents are trying to work from home as well.”
In other developments:
Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports will this week begin requiring travellers to wear face masks and gloves
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Andrew Griffith, Mr Johnson’s former business adviser, warns that “every additional day the phone rings unanswered in ‘lockdown’ Britain is an order lost to an overseas competitor whose own economy is open for business”
A senior bishop signalled the Church of England could accept a temporary relaxation of Sunday trading laws, as Alok Sharma, the Business Secretary, pushed for the move in order to boost the economy and allow more time for key workers to shop
A study by scientists at the University of Dundee found that resuming more than just 10 per cent of pre-lockdown contacts with other people “would risk a second peak”.
Last night, Mr Johnson held talks with the “quad” of senior ministers making key decisions about the lockdown.
Whitehall sources said the plan included opening primary schools as early as June 1 – a date that could be pushed back as a result of data due to be delivered to ministers by the Office for National Statistics this week.
Mr Johnson has said it is “vital” to keep the “R” number – the measurement of the Covid-19 transmission rate – below one, meaning the virus is in retreat nationwide.
Last week, it stood between 0.5 and one, giving ministers optimism that they can reopen primary schools as early as June 1.
A Whitehall source said the move was “crucial for economic reasons, to get things moving, but also for educational reasons”, adding “early years development is very important”.
Meanwhile, secondary school pupils “can do a lot more at home and online. They are not as pressing as primary schoolchildren, who we know need a lot of attention.”
Yesterday, Jenny Harries, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said there were “some signs that potentially younger children are less susceptible to disease and potentially transmit it less”.
Officials are believed to be working on detailed plans for the safest way to reopen schools, with possibilities including temporary limits on class sizes. The question of when to reopen nursery schools remains a live discussion.
ONS survey data due to be issued this week is expected to give ministers the clearest picture yet of how the disease is spreading in the UK. A source said “a lot of the strategy” would depend on the findings.
This week the Government is also expected to focus on measures intended to encourage those already permitted to work to return to construction sites and factories. Those who work in
offices and can carry out their roles from home are likely to be encouraged to continue to do so. Dr Harries said the public needed “very clear messaging to understand when to come out and to be reassured that it’s safe”.
Last week, senior civil servants from the business department are said to have asked business groups about the practicalities of introducing workplace testing.
Several senior government and corporate figures believe the UK will end up with such regimes as part of a national “track and trace” strategy intended to pinpoint and isolate cases of the virus.
A Yale study suggesting that new saliva tests are a “more sensitive” alternative to the swab tests currently administered by the NHS, has led to optimism that workplace testing of asymptomatic staff could become routine, with samples handed to office managers or human resources staff to send to labs.
This week, the NHS’s South Koreastyle contact tracing system is expected to be piloted on the Isle of Wight. A Department for Education spokesman said: “Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has not set a date for schools reopening.
“Schools will remain closed, except for children of critical workers and vulnerable children, until the scientific advice indicates it is the right time to reopen and the five tests set out by Government to beat this virus have been met.”