AN UPDATE on when children in Sussex will return to school after the Christmas break is expected today amid concerns over rising coronavirus case rates and hospital admissions.
This afternoon, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson will make a statement in the House of Commons about the return of schools in England.
There has been growing concern from teaching unions and scientists about the spread of the virus following the discovery of its much more transmissible variant.
A YouGov poll conducted overnight suggested that 43 per cent of 7,999 British adults surveyed would "strongly support" keeping schools in England closed for two further weeks after the Christmas break.
Just 9 per cent "strongly opposed" the idea and 10 per cent "somewhat opposed" keeping school gates shut, YouGov said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the aim is to "protect education as much as possible" but acknowledged the challenge posed by the new variant.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The Education Secretary will be setting out his proposals later today. Clearly we want to protect education as much as possible.
"But the new variant does make it much easier for this disease to transmit. So we are going to protect education as much as we can."
Boris Johnson was due to chair a key meeting on Wednesday looking at delaying the reopening of secondary schools, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Labour had called for Mr Williamson to make a statement to MPs on the plan for schools and colleges, with shadow education secretary Kate Green saying "staff and pupils are crying out for clarity about the start of term next week".
She added: "Silence from government is not an option."
Earlier this month, the government said exam-year students would go back to school as normal after the Christmas holidays, but the majority of secondary school pupils would start the term online to allow headteachers to roll out mass testing of children and staff.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said he did not want to see education of children disrupted, but due to the worsening situation in hospitals he called on ministers to "delay the reopening of secondary schools for in-person learning for most children until later in January".
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Professor Neil Ferguson, a member of the government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said schools staying shut may be "required" if it was "the only alternative to having exponentially growing numbers of hospitalisations".
Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) members Professor Andrew Hayward and Dr Mike Tildesley have also suggested a possible "slight delay" to having pupils back on site.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman told a Westminster briefing on Tuesday that they were "still planning for a staggered opening of schools and we are working to ensure testing is in place".
But he added that all measures are being kept "under constant review".
The staggered approach would see primary school pupils and Year 11 and Year 13 pupils returning in the first week of January, and other students going back later in the month.
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