Older pupils should return first in a phased reopening of Britain’s schools says headteachers’ union

General Secretary of the ASCL, Geoff Barton said it is likely schools would reintroduce certain year groups in the first instance

A headteacher’s union is calling for pupils in the middle of exam courses, and in the final year of primary school, to return to the classroom first as part of a phased reopening of UK schools.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said students with the most to gain would be those in years 10 and 12, who are in the middle of GCSE and A-level courses, and those in year 6 who will move on to secondary school in September.     

It comes as figures show that the vast majority of children entitled to be at school have stayed away during the lockdown with attendances as low as 1 per cent.

Schools, which are only open to teach the children of key workers and pupils in vulnerable situations, have reported rates of between just 1 and 3 per cent.

As of April 17, only 24,000 vulnerable children were attending – just 5 per cent of the 480,000 eligible. 

However, the Government is under pressure to reopen schools to prevent damage to children’s education and to allow more parents to go back to work. 

General Secretary of the ASCL, Geoff Barton, said June, after half term, would be the earliest realistic entrance point and maintaining social distancing in schools will be necessary, ‘as much as possible.’ 

‘It is likely that we will need to reintroduce certain year groups in the first instance rather than fully reopening schools to all pupils.

 Schools teaching children of key workers and vulnerable pupils reported rates of attendance between 1 and 3 per cent

‘This could be particularly beneficial for pupils in year 10 and year 12 because they are studying GCSE and A-level courses respectively, and for pupils in year 6, who are due to go to secondary school in September,’ Mr Barton told The Guardian. 

Yesterday Mr Barton raised concern about vulnerable students who aren’t accessing the emergency provision provided by schools.

‘There is a particular worry about young people who are at risk of abuse or neglect when they are out of school.

‘We are all working on ways of reaching out to these families to encourage these pupils to attend the emergency provision,’ he added.

Denmark, became the first country in Europe to reopen its schools last week, but just younger children, the under-12s returned.  

Whitehall sources told the Daily Mail that ministers want a partial reopening of schools after the summer half-term at the end of May and would focus on key groups such as those taking exams next year or bringing back children part time.       

The Government is under pressure to reopen schools to prevent damage to children’s education and to allow more parents to go back to work

But a Whitehall source said official analysis produced for ministers found that a full opening of schools now would immediately drive up the so-called ‘R rate’ which measures how quickly the virus is spreading. This would undo much of the progress achieved by the lockdown and will risk a second wave of infection.

‘The analysis is that opening schools now would be enough to drive the R rate above one, even if you left the rest of the lockdown in place,’ the source said.

‘Then you have the virus spreading exponentially again. So it’s a non-starter now but the hope is things will look better by [May] half-term. Nothing is fixed but that’s the earliest you could look at.’

The revelation came as No 10 confirmed ministers are adopting a cautious approach to easing the lockdown because of the risk of a deadly second peak of infections.

Only 62,000 children of key workers – 2 per cent – were in school, according to the Department for Education, as of April 17.

Schools reported overall attendance rates in late March at more than 3 per cent, falling to just 1 per cent by the middle of April while nurseries saw 4 per cent of their usual numbers.  

Kevin Courtney, of the National Education Union, said: ‘We think it’s clear that some parents aren’t sending their children to school because they think it is unsafe.

‘This makes the point that the Government will have to present evidence that a return to schools will be safe.’ 

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has previously said he wants local authorities ‘to ensure every vulnerable child knows that their school is there to support them’.

A former boss of education watchdog Ofsted told the BBC that schools should be reopened ‘as soon as it is safe to do so’. 

But Sir Michael Wilshaw also warned that some children may need to repeat a year. 

He said: ‘Those who are preparing for examinations next year… I think [they] possibly need to repeat the year and perhaps others as well.