Council tells schools in Nottingham to remain closed next week as education chief says it is "too soon" for children to go back

'Today, we would like to make it clear, unequivocally, that we do not feel it is the right time to bring children back to schools on Monday'

Council-run schools have been advised to remain closed next week despite new Government advice.

Primary schools across England will be allowed to reopen for some children from Monday, June 1.

They will be taking in reception, Year One and Year Six pupils as well as the children of key workers.

However Nottingham City Council's education chief says it is "too soon" to bring children back next week and has told schools in the city to remain closed.

Councillor Neghat Khan, portfolio holder for early years, education and employment, said: "The city council has been working with schools to understand how we might gradually increase the number of children while keeping them as safe as possible.

“We have previously said that there was no pressure from the council for head teachers to reopen until they felt they were ready to do. We also made it clear that we would not issue fines for parents who chose not to send their children back to school.

“Earlier this week, the council decided that we had growing concerns that the right conditions for a phased return might not be in place by 1 June.

“Today, we would like to make it clear, unequivocally, that we do not feel it is the right time to bring children back to schools on Monday.

“We are advising schools run by the council through the Nottingham Schools Trust that they should not reopen to wider numbers at this time.

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"Not a reflection on our schools in Nottingham"

Cllr Khan added: “This is not a reflection on our schools in Nottingham. They have done a tremendous job of working towards opening to more pupils while continuing to look after the children of critical workers and those pupils with additional needs and vulnerabilities. We would like to praise them for their efforts over the last ten weeks of lockdown.

“This is as much about the right conditions being in place – for example the effective introduction of the ‘Test and Trace’ system that would give additional reassurance on how best to manage the spread of the virus.

“We know this is short notice, but we have been monitoring the situation and wanted to wait until we were certain that it was not too soon to bring more children back.

"We want our parents to be confident that all steps are being taken to minimise the risk to their children. We know that this is the number one priority for our parents, for our schools and for the City Council."

Secondary school pupils in years 10 and 12 can start to return from June 15 and all primary school pupils could be back by the end of the month, the Government says.