Boris Johnson has said parents and schools will be given two weeks’ notice before pupils return to class.
The Prime Minister said the Government will “look at” the idea of reopening schools in areas where the virus is less prevalent, but he added that it was “pretty much a national picture at the moment”.
Pupils in schools and colleges in England, except children of key workers and vulnerable pupils, were told to learn remotely as part of the latest lockdown.
When asked how children across the country may return to school, Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference: “Clearly if we’re going to go back after half-term, February 22, we need to give two weeks’ notice.
“We will be making sure we give advice well in advance of that about what we hope to do and give people some rough idea of when things might be possible.”
Headteacher
As the pressure increases on home schooling kids, and parents forgetting how to do simple arithmetic, one headteacher seems to have had enough of educational back seat drivers.
Colin Dowland described how some parents of pupils at Woodridge Primary School in North Finchley, London, had “taken advantage” of online learning platforms to send “highly critical messages of advice to teachers about how to do their jobs”.
“The children have now received only 13 weeks of school (this too, restricted by Covid) in the last 11 months and this is set to continue for some time to come. Inevitably, there will be some gaps in learning for all children,” the headteacher said.
But it was the last paragraph of his letter of his letter that really hit home.
He wrote: “A number of parents have taken advantage of this new access to send highly critical messages of advice to teachers about how to do their jobs and questioning their training, skills and competence.
“Can I encourage all those particular parents, who now consider themselves to be educational experts, to sign up for teacher training at their earliest convenience, since there are never enough teachers and I suspect many will be leaving the profession after this year.”
Some people on social media loved his comments.
Related: Kids face months more at home with schools to stay shut until Easter