Primary schools in these areas of England are not expected to reopen next week

Some primary schools in England will not reopen to all pupils next week as planned, it has been announced.

Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, revealed the news on Wednesday 30 December, and it was later confirmed by Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, in an evening briefing.

"In secondary schools all vulnerable children and children of critical workers will go back next week across England as originally planned, but we will ask exam year pupils in secondary to learn remotely during the first week of term and return to the classroom from January 11," said Johnson.

"The remaining secondary school pupils – non-exam groups – will go back a week later, that is from January 18."

However, the Prime Minister highlighted that these plans could still change, depending on the spread of Covid-19.

"I want to stress that depending on the spread of the disease it may be necessary to take further action in their cases as well in the worst affected areas," he said.

'Closures will be as short as possible'

On 31 December, Williamson told BBC Breakfast he wanted school closures to be “as short as possible."

“We are having to take these steps on public health advice," he explained.

The Education Secretary also said he was confident schools will be ready to administer Covid tests to pupils returning to face to face learning from 11 January.

"There’s absolutely no reason that schools won’t be ready," he commented, arguing that £78 million of additional funding, equipment such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and support from the military would help schools to set up mass testing programmes quickly.