Michael Gove says schools will reopen next week but warns of 'trade-offs'

Michael Gove has insisted that primary school pupils and some at secondary schools will return early next month but warned that there will be "trade-offs".

The Cabinet Office minister said the Government was confident that younger pupils and those in Years 11 and 13 in England would be able to return in the first week of January, with the rest going back later in the month.

Mr Gove said: "It is our intention to make sure we can get children back to school as early as possible. We are talking to teachers and head teachers in order to make sure we can deliver effectively. But we all know that there are trade-offs."

He said children returning to school had to be a priority but warned that this had to be balanced against the new Covid strain. Scientists have warned that the spread of the new variant may be "particularly marked" in children and that school closures may be needed to keep the 'R' number below one.

A rapid analysis by the Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found the new Covid variant is 56 per cent more transmissible than other forms of the virus.

But Mr Gove said the Government was "confident" that schools will be "back in good order" by the New Year, telling the Today Programme: "Our plan and our timetable is there, and were are working with teachers to deliver it."

Sir Jeremy Farrar, the head of the Wellcome Trust and a member of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), also said the reopening of schools would require trade-offs.

"Certainly my own view is that schools opening is an absolute priority," he said. "But society – and eventually this is a political decision – will have to balance keeping schools open, if that is possible, with therefore closing down other parts of society.

"It is going be a trade-off between one or other. You cannot have everything."

Sir Jeremy said it was not possible to have "the whole of society opening, and schools opening and further education and universities, and keep 'R' below one with this variant", telling the Today programme: "I think there are some very, very tough choices."

He warned that the "continued pressures" currently facing the UK would persist "at least over the next two or three months".

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, will meet the Department of Education on Monday amid hints that schools could stay shut until the February half-term because of the new virus variant.

But Mr Gove insisted on Monday the Government hoped the staggered reopening of schools in England would go ahead next month as planned.

"We always keep things under review, but teachers and head teachers have been working incredibly hard over the Christmas period since schools broke up in order to prepare for a new testing regime – community testing – in order to make sure that children and all of us are safer," he said. "We do keep things under review, but that is the plan."

Ahead of the meeting on Monday, Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary,  is understood to be pushing for schools to remain open, although Mr Johnson has previously refused to say that there will not be school closures in January.  Downing Street has said that keeping  schools open is a "national priority".

Labour's shadow education secretary, Kate Green, said: "Labour has been clear that keeping pupils learning should be a national priority, but a litany of Government failures, from a lack of funding for safety measures through to the delayed and chaotic announcement of mass testing, is putting young people's education at risk.

"It is time for the Prime Minister to get a grip on the situation and show some leadership.

"The country needs to hear from him today, alongside the chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser, about the evidence on the spread of the virus, how he plans to minimise disruption to education and a clear strategy for schools and colleges that commands the support of parents, pupils and staff."