Teachers can stay away when schools reopen if they have safety fears, Downing Street indicates

Teachers can stay away when primary schools reopen next week if they believe it is not safe to return, Downing Street has indicated.

The “majority” of schools are expected to open their doors to reception, year 1 and year 6 pupils – but Boris Johnson’s spokesman said it was up to individual head teachers to arrange staffing.

Asked if teachers are “obliged” to go back on Monday, and if they will be “in breach” of their contracts if they refuse, he indicated there would be no punishment.

“It is going to be cautious and phased return,” the spokesman said,” adding: “Attendance will grow over time.”

“I’m sure head teachers will be having conversations with individual staff,” he said, with some schools likely to “need more time to prepare”.

Schools, nurseries and colleges closed almost 10 weeks ago to help stop the rapid spread of coronavirus – only remaining open to vulnerable pupils and children of key workers.

The prime minister confirmed the reopening from Monday, pointing to a “sustained and consistent fall in the daily death rate” in recent days and weeks.

However, some schools and local authorities have said they will remain closed, at least for now, amid an increasingly bitter row with Gavin Williamson, the education secretary.

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, has described the go-back instruction as “frightening and difficult”.

“Time and again we have had to ask for the scientific thinking behind wider school opening. Time and again we have not had the answers,” she protested.

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