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Coronavirus: Drop plan to reopen primaries to all pupils, ministers urged
May 31, 2020
School governors want ministers to drop plans for all primary pupils in England to return before the summer holidays.
The first wave of children is due back from Monday but the government wants all primary pupils in class for the last four weeks of term.
This ambition piles pressure on schools "when actually it wouldn't be safe", said Emma Knights, chief executive of the National Governance Association.
Ministers say the return of all pupils will depend on updated safety advice.
Last week the schools minister Nick Gibb told MPs any decision on whether all pupils should return would be led by the science, and no decision had as yet been made.
No decision on all primary years back to school How do schools double classes with no extra rooms?
Many schools have been open to the children of key workers and vulnerable children throughout the lockdown, with all the others attempting to follow the primary curriculum at home.
From Monday, the government wants all pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 to return to their classrooms, with no more than 15 pupils per class.
This means every class of 30 would have to be spread across two classrooms.
Under these rules, if all year groups went back, there would not be enough classrooms in the vast majority of primary schools.
Ms Knights has written to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, "asking him to review and to drop" the expectation that all primary pupils should be back at school for the last four weeks of term.
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