The New School Rules

Plans ramped up for return to classrooms

- Nicola Bartlett

Parents have been given a glimpse of how schools will operate when they reopen to more pupils as lockdown restrictions are eased.

Class sizes will be halved, start times will be staggered and contact will be severely reduced for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 who return to primary school from June 1.

Plans for the reopening were ramped up as the Government announced tests would be available to everyone over five who shows symptoms.

It comes as the Department of Health revealed 34,796 people had died in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus, a rise of 160 on the previous day. The Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted the UK proposals for schools to return is “sensible”.

He said: “It is very clear that the number of children who are badly affected by this disease is very, very, very small.

“So, the proposals that we’ve made for schools are safe and they are sensible.”

He added it is up to head teachers whether staff are allowed to wear face masks or visors while they teach.

Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, has urged the Government to write to him setting out the scientific evidence behind the decision.