All children of key workers will be urged to go back to school from next week – with Year 6 youngsters expected to be first whole class back on June 1
- 1.7m vulnerable pupils or whose parents are key workers will be asked to go back
- Year sixes will be first full classes through back in to help prepare for high school
- Ministers will target first week of June for a wider reopening of primary schools
- After this, secondary schools will allow pupils in years ten and (return to class)
By
John Stevens, Deputy Political Editor For The Daily Mail
and James Gant For Mailonline Published:
One in five children will be urged to return to the classroom from next week as part of a gradual reopening of schools.
More than 1.7million pupils who are vulnerable or whose Parents are key workers will be asked to go back.
Students in year six will be first full classes through the doors – potentially from June 1 – to help them prepare for the transition to high school.
Ministers will target later that week for a wider reopening of primary schools, before secondary schools allow pupils in years ten and 19 to return.
The Government is now preparing to issue guidance that will instead encourage key workers to send their children to school
Officials are looking at options including having classes in on alternate days or weeks to allow them to spread out
Key workers have been entitled to keep sending their children to class throughout the lockdown, but when schools shut six weeks ago they were urged to look after them at home where possible.
The Government is now preparing to issue guidance that will instead encourage these parents to send their children to school.
Just one parent needs to be a key worker for their child to be eligible but parents will not be fined for not sending them in.
The Scientific A dvisory Group for Emergencies, which counsels the government, is targeting June 1 for all year six pupils to be sent back to lessons.
These children are seen as the priority to get back in class due to them transferring to secondary school in September.
(A Whitehall source told the
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