BORIS Johnson says it’s still his “ambition” to get all kids back to school by September, and it’s too early to increase class sizes from 15.
The PM insisted that the plan is still for all children to return to classrooms for the start of the new academic year, if the science allows it.
He said he would have liked to get all primary school kids back before the summer for some learning time, but this wasn’t possible.
The Government dropped these plans earlier this week, and stressed they just wanted to see more kids go back if they could.
However, the “numbers are climbing every day” he insisted.
And the Prime Minister said tonight: “The rate of infection is not quite low enough – we are not able to change social distancing advice including smaller class sizes at school.
“We are not proceeding with our ambitions to bring back all primary pupils at least for some weeks before the summer holidays.
“We do fully intended to bring back all children back to school in September, provided the progress we are making.”
Secondary school kids in years ten and twelve will be able to come into the classrooms for extra time with their teachers from next week too.
And he said “there will be a huge amount of catch up over the summer months.”
Gavin Williamson will announce more about the catch up programme next week.”
The summer camp scheme is expected to include more funding for teachers to be able to come in and help kids catch up on their learning.
The Government is set to work with outside organisations to have them come in, and could include volunteers too.
Last week kids in reception, year one and year six were allowed to go back to classrooms again for the first time in months.
However, just one in four kids who were elligible went back into schools as many worried parents kept them at home.
Children are set to return to schools in Wales from June 29, with alternating weeks for different students.
And in Scotland they are set to return in August.
