EDUCATION SECRETARY ADMITS DEFEAT ON AMBITION TO FULL RETURN OF SCHOOLCHILDREN UP TO YEAR 6 AHEAD OF JULY HOLIDAYS

ATHERSTONE AND DISTRICT BREAK THROUGH 200-CASE BARRIER

PRIMARY schools in Atherstone and district have been told they will not be able to welcome all pupils back for a month before the summer holidays.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has admitted the Government's ambition to return schoolchildren up to Year 6 to the classroom for four weeks before the end of this term had been dropped.

Mr Williamson alerted MPs to the issue after promising he would "work with the sector" to see educational establishments which "have the capacity" to bring back more pupils where possible before the July break – and, if possible, all children by September.

It comes after school leaders, teachers and governors urged ministers to reconsider plans for a full return to primary schooling – as they said it would be impossible amid capacity issues, staff shortages and social distancing.

Questions of England's decision to ease lockdown measures ahead of the rest of the UK has been brought into sharp focus by the return to school of some pupils last week.

Teachers across the UK have warned they did not have enough space on site to admit all pupils in the eligible year groups, while adhering to Government guidance to limit class sizes to 15 and encourage fewer interactions.

Figures released by the Department for Education on Tuesday showed that just over half – 52 per cent – of primary schools in England had reopened to more children on Thursday last week.

But addressing MPs, Mr Williamson said the number of schools that have begun reopening their doors to more pupils has risen in recent days.

He said: "By the end of the week, more than half of primary schools were taking pupils from these year groups, and as of yesterday that had risen to over 70 per cent of primaries that had responded."

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said there would have been "significant practical barriers" to bringing all primary pupils back in the summer term if the goal had gone ahead.

He said: "School leaders are already working through the practical considerations of engaging all pupils and families as best they can, as the academic year draws to a close.

"This will require flexibility in order to balance the needs of all pupils with the continued constraints placed upon schools.

"With the end of term just six weeks away, Government now needs to provide urgent clarity on the anticipated constraints that schools may face in September, so that schools and parents can start to look ahead and plan with greater understanding of the possible disruption that may yet still follow."

The Government statistics are the first indication of pupil attendance since more children in England began returning to school and nursery last week.

Schools, colleges and nurseries closed more than 11 weeks ago due to the Covid-19 outbreak, remaining open only for vulnerable youngsters and the children of key workers.

Approximately 91 per cent of all settings were open in some capacity on June 4, up from 80 per cent on May 21 – the week before half-term when schools remained open to vulnerable pupils and children of key workers.

Around 659,000 children attended an education setting on June 4, representing 6.9 per cent of all pupils who normally attend, up from around 244,000 who attended school on May 21.

Approximately 166,000 children attended early years settings on June 4, up from 88,000 on May 21. This represents around 10 per cent of the number of children who usually attend, according to the DfE analysis.

Anne Longfield, the Children's Commissioner for England, said: "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."

She said children will remain "isolated", with many living in "fragile" family environments.

Meanwhile, Atherstone and district have now broken the 200 barrier for confirmed coroanvirus cases.

Bedworth and Nuneaton have now reported 456 Covid-19 cases – up seven since the weekend – at the highest rate per 100,000 population of any of its neighbouring Midland authorities including Birmingham and Coventry.

Its rate is 353.8 per 100,000 compared with North Warwickshire's 201 cases at 309.9 per 100,000, Birmingham's 3,284 cases testing positive at 287.7 per 100,000 and Coventry's 821 cases – up two – at 223.8 per 100,000.

Warwickshire has 1,518 people who have tested positive to date at at a case rate per 100,000 of 265.8.

The UK total is 289,140 (up 1,387 from Monday) with our grim death toll rising by 286 and now standing at 40,883 – 117 of those have lost their lives in the Bedworth and Nuneaton borough up to May 22.

While numbers are falling, there have been tens of thousands of "excess" deaths compared to the average number over five years for the same period.

The total number of excess deaths has passed 63,500, with Tuesday's figures showing 57,961 more in England and Wales between March 21 and May 29, 2020.

Added together with the numbers of excess deaths for Scotland and Northern Ireland published last week, the total number of excess deaths in the UK across this period now stands at 63,596.

All figures are based on death registrations.

In the week ending May 29, there were 819 more deaths in care homes compared with the five-year average, and 30 fewer deaths in hospitals.

Tuesday's release takes the overall coronavirus death toll for the UK to 51,766, based on death certificates where coronavirus was mentioned and deaths of confirmed cases in hospitals.

This is more than 10,000 above the latest tally of related deaths calculated by the Department of Health & Social Care.

Confirmed cases of coronavirus across the globe have now reached 7.2 million – and the death tally is 408,737. Nearly half of those who have tested positive have now recovered (3,536,686).

Two separate studies in the journal Nature have shown that hundreds of millions of lives have been saved worldwide by lockdown.

Coronavirus would have infected nearly one in five Americans – 60 million people – in the first few weeks of the outbreak without restrictions and social distancing, according to a peer-reviewed study led by the University of California at Berkeley.

Separate research from epidemiologists at Imperial College London estimated lockdown saved about 3.1 million lives in 11 European countries, including 500,000 in the UK, and dropped infection rates by an average of 82 per cent, sufficient to drive the infection in the well below epidemic levels.

The team estimated that in the initial days after the virus spread, and before lockdown, the number of infections was doubling every two days.

Imperial research author Samir Bhatt said only about three to four per cent of people in the countries being studied have been infected to date.

"This is just the beginning of the epidemic: we're very far from herd immunity," Bhatt said in an email.

"The risk of a second wave happening if all interventions and precautions are abandoned is very real."