The opening of secondary schools in England will be delayed as the Covid pandemic continues to surge, the government has announced.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson said pupils in exam years would be returning on January 11, with others due to return on January 18, in a U-turn on previous plans.
He also said the majority of primary schools would reopen on January 4, except those in high infection rate areas.
It is not yet known which primary schools will remain closed, but Williamson said the government would publish a list of high infection rate areas, and that it did not include all tier 4 areas.
It came as official figures showed that the UK had recorded 50,023 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday.
And a further 981 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, the Department for Health and Social Care also confirmed.
The “immediate adjustment to plans for the new term” are down to the “rapidly changing” nature of the virus, Williamson added, as he said closures were a “last resort”.
“The latest study we have from Public Health England is that Covid infections among children are triggered by changes in the community rate,” he said.
He said “the majority of primary schools” will open as planned on Monday, January 4, but said: “In a small number of areas where the infection rates are highest we will implement our existing contingency framework such as only vulnerable children and children of critical workers will attend face to face.
“We will publish this list of areas today on the gov.uk website. I’d like to emphasise that this is being used only as a last resort. This is not all tier 4 areas and that the overwhelming majority of primary schools will open as planned on Monday.”
As a result, Williamson said that only vulnerable children and children of key workers will receive face-to-face teaching in the first week of term.
He said: “To allow this focus on establishing testing throughout the first week of term, exam year groups will continue to have lessons remotely in line with what they would receive in class.
“And only vulnerable children and children of critical workers will have face-to-face teaching.”
Health secretary Matt Hancock announced on Wednesday that millions more people in England will move into the highest tier 4 level of coronavirus restrictions.
Secondary schools and colleges had previously been expecting to open only for exam-year students, vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers on January 4, with the rest of the school returning to the classroom the following week.
Teachers and staff were tasked over the Christmas holiday with devising a plan to implement the government’s mass testing policy in schools, which will see all staff tested weekly and pupils tested for seven days if they are deemed to have been in close contact with a positive case of Covid-19.
Williamson said that testing will begin “in earnest” in January, with those in exam years at the head of the queue.
He told MPs: “During the first week of term on or after January 4, secondary schools and colleges will prepare to test as many staff and students as possible and will only be open to vulnerable children and children of key workers.
“The 1,500 military personnel committed to supporting schools and colleges will remain on task providing virtual training and advice on establishing the testing process with teams on standby to provide in-person support if required by schools.
“Testing will then begin the following week in earnest with those who are in exam years at the head of the queue.
“This is in preparation for the full return of all pupils in all year groups on January 18 in most areas.”
It comes after cabinet minister Michael Gove insisted on Monday he was “confident” the staggered return to schools would go ahead as of January 4.
He told BBC Radio 4: “It is our intention to make sure we can get children back to school as early as possible.”
This was in spite of a reported meeting between the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and ministers at the start of the Christmas holidays, during which – as Politico reported – the government was urged to keep schools closed.