Fears are growing that schools may remain closed until the Easter holidays, meaning children will have spent another three months away from the classroom.
Boris Johnson initially ordered them to shut until the February half term in a bid to curb soaring coronavirus infections, but has since declined to rule out extending lockdown restrictions.
Ministers indicated yesterday that they would only be gradually lifted from early March.
Asked whether schools would also reopen then, health secretary Matt Hancock said ‘we’ve got to watch the data’, adding that it will depend on the number of deaths and pressure on the NHS falling, the vaccine rollout going as planned and no new variants emerging.
The leader of a major academy chain said the ‘mood’ is that schools will stay shut to most children until the Easter holidays at the beginning of April.
Steve Chalke, head of the Oasis academy chain which runs 48 schools across the country, said: ‘I don’t think schools will reopen until post Easter.
‘I think they will miss the second half of term as well.’
He added that many teachers are worried about catching coronavirus in school and will feel ‘safer’ and ‘more confident’ when the weather warms up and children can be taken out of the classroom more.
Speaking at Monday’s Downing Street coronavirus briefing, Mr Hancock said of the prospect of schools reopening in March: ‘We’ve got to watch the data and the Prime Minister, when he brought in the national lockdown, set out four considerations.
‘We’ve got to see the number of deaths coming down and, sadly, we haven’t seen that yet, we need to clearly see the pressure on the NHS reducing and, as you’ve just heard from Professor Powis, we are not seeing that yet.
‘We must see the vaccination programme working and the rollout is going really well, so that is clearly on track but it’s still got a massive effort, and we need to see the efficacy of the vaccine working in practice saving lives, which we know that it will from the clinical trials but I want to see that actually happening on the ground.
‘The fourth consideration is that there isn’t some other new variant in the same way that in December we discovered the new variant that caused so many difficulties and meant that the old three-tiered system ceased to work. We monitor all the time for new variants and, as you know, we’ve taken very significant and rapid action to protect Britain from new variants that are spotted overseas.’
Dr Susan Hopkins, deputy director of the national infection service of Public Health England (PHE), added: ‘We monitor the data on a daily basis and review it with looking at when and what we think might be able to happen next.
‘On the point of schools, we’ve always said schools should be the last to close and first to open, but I think giving a more defined date than that is very difficult until we see what happens over the next few weeks.’
Last night the chairman of the education committee, Robert Halfon, said: ‘The Government said that schools would reopen after the February half term.
‘Everything possible should be done to keep to that date – for the sake of the children’s education, mental health and safety.
‘That is why ministers should prioritise school staff for the vaccine, and send in mobile units to jab them across the country.’
The Prime Minister said the process of lifting restrictions would be gradual, with no great ‘open sesame’ moment.
Mr Johnson said: ‘I understand completely that people want to get back to normal as fast as we possibly can. It does depend on things going well.’
He suggested ‘things will be very different by the spring’, but added: ‘I’m afraid I’ve got to warn people it will be gradual, you can’t just open up in a great open sesame, in a great bang, because I’m afraid the situation is still pretty precarious.’
Public Health England (PHE) said a further 599 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Monday, bringing the UK total to 89,860.
As of 9am on Monday, there had been a further 37,535 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.
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