THE PRIME Minister has this morning visited a school in East Lancashire to see how they are preparing for the return of pupils.

Boris Johnson met with staff and students at Accrington Academy along with the local media during his trip.

During his visit Mr Johnson spoke about the difficulties faced by the hundreds of thousands of children who have been forced to study from home due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Mr Johnson said: “I think in an ideal world you would not have taken kids out of school because of the pandemic, we wouldn’t have been forced to do this and in an ideal world we’d be continuing with exams as you normally have them, and the best place for kids is in the classroom and the best way to check on kids’ progress is with normal exams.

“But I think this is as good a compromise as we can come to.

“I think it will be fair, I think it will be durable and it’s the right way forward.”

Lancashire Telegraph:

Asked if he had confidence in the Education Secretary, the Prime Minister replied: “Of course, and I think that what we are doing is the right thing to get all our students, our pupils, back on March 8, I think that is what parents, teachers and overwhelmingly what pupils want to do, and I’ve just been talking to some of them here at Accrington Academy and they are really looking forward to it.

“They have done very well, learning remotely, they’ve stuck with it, it’s been productive and got better over the course of the lockdowns, but the best place for kids is in schools and they have got absolutely no doubt about it the pupils themselves.”

The Lancashire Telegraph’s full interview with the Prime Minister will be live soon.