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The government’s decision to drop plans to reopen primary schools before the end of term has been branded a “huge disappointment” by the children’s commissioner for England.
Anne Longfield said the decision meant many children would remain “isolated”, with many living in “fragile” family environments for months to come.
She told told BBC Breakfast on Tuesday morning: “I think it’s a huge disappointment for those children who’d expected to go back into school before the summer now now may not.
“It does mean that the vast majority, probably about eight million children, very likely won’t return to the classroom until September, which means that, again, there will be a huge variation in their learning over that period.”
Ministers had wanted pupils to spend four weeks in school before the summer break but had faced a backlash from some in the education sector who said it would be impossible to enforce social distancing to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he was not surprised the plan to bring back all primary pupils before the summer holidays had been dropped.
He said: “The ‘ambition’ to bring back all primary year groups for a month before the end of the summer term was a case of the government over-promising something that wasn’t deliverable.
“It isn’t possible to do that while maintaining small class sizes and social bubbles, so we aren’t surprised that the policy has been jettisoned.”
It comes after health secretary Matt Hancock conceded secondary schools in England may not fully reopen until later than September despite saying coronavirus is “in retreat” across the UK.
Boris Johnson will speak with his Cabinet on Tuesday morning before education secretary Gavin Williamson delivers a statement to parliament on the wider reopening of schools, PA Media reports.
Hancock said at the Downing Street briefing on Monday that it was still “our current working plan” that secondary schools in England will not open until September “at the earliest”.
The Department of Education said it remained the “ambition” for all primary school children to return before the summer holidays, but did not deny reports Williamson will accept this desire may not be fulfilled.
With the number of new deaths falling to the lowest reported since lockdown began, Hancock said plans to further ease restrictions including the reopening of non-essential shops from Monday could go ahead.
“When you look across the board, it is clear that coronavirus is in retreat across the country,” he said, as deaths linked to Covid-19 reached nearly 51,000.
But with the phased reopening of England’s schools having begun last week, he acknowledged older pupils could still face months without attending class.
“That is our current working plan, is that secondary schools won’t open until September at the earliest,” he said.
Children in England began returning in a phased process last week, with Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils heading back first.
Ian Robinson, chief executive of the Oak Partnership Trust, said he did not think lessening the social distancing restrictions from two metres to one would help matters in schools.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “You can’t keep children two feet or even 1.5 feet away from each other.
“We’ve worked on the principle of no more than 15 children per classroom, so one of our schools, when we’ve got all three of our year groups in and over 50 key worker and vulnerable children in, have 250 children on site – they have got 12 classrooms.
“If you divide those children into groups of 15, you don’t have any more classrooms, you don’t have any more teachers to be able to bring any more year groups back in.”
Hancock has also unveiled plans for pupils and teachers across England to receive coronavirus testing to monitor the spread of the disease as classes resume.