Secondary schools will be offered a “small amount of flexibility” on when they return after Christmas, the government has said.
Education minister Alex Burghart said such an approach would enable schools to put in place measures to test pupils for Covid on their return from their break.
Tes revealed last month that the government had asked secondary schools to run on-site Covid tests in January when students return after the Christmas holidays.
In an email to schools sent in November, the Department for Education acknowledged this was a “significant ask” and gave them less than three full working days to order the lateral flow testing kits they will need.
Mr Burghart highlighted the January Covid testing plan as he faced a barrage of calls from Conservative MPs today over ensuring schools remain open in the new year.
Responding to an urgent question, Mr Burghart said: “The government is committed to ensuring schools open in January as normal.
“The classroom is the very best place for children and young people’s development.”
He added: “Protecting education continues to be our absolute priority.”
He said testing, vaccination, ventilation and hygiene “are the ways in which we will absolutely back schools to make sure that in-classroom teaching can continue”.
Schools offered ‘small amount of flexibility’
Mr Burghart added: “We are recommending that at the start of next term all secondary school pupils will be tested right at the start of term, and we are offering a small amount of flexibility for the time at which schools can go back in order to make sure that this testing can take place.
“We are offering additional funding to make sure that this testing is available. I can reassure the House that schools have and will have all of the testing facilities that they require.”
Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, had warned that schools are facing “de facto closures” because of Covid absences.
Downing Street urges parents to keep children in school
As concerns over the Omicron variant of Covid continue, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said it was “important” that schools and parents “don’t take precautionary steps to deprive their children of education”.
The plea today comes amid reports that parents are choosing to keep their children out of class ahead of Christmas due to concerns about the Omicron variant.
Some schools and colleges have switched to remote lessons this week in the run-up to the festive break.
Responding to suggestions that some parents are keeping their children at home to avoid the prospect of anyone catching Covid-19 and being forced to isolate over the Christmas period, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “The best place for children - who have in many respects suffered the most through this pandemic - is in school, receiving vital face-to-face education.”
Government figures suggest 2.9 per cent of all pupils - nearly 236,000 children - were not in class for reasons connected to coronavirus on 9 December.
This was up from 208,000 children, or 2.6 per cent of all pupils, on 25 November.
