Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether private schools with pupil numbers of less than 30 are permitted to re-open to all year groups so long as social distancing rules are complied with.

We want to get all children back into education as soon as the scientific advice allows. As set out in the guidance, we have asked primary schools to welcome back children in nursery, Reception, year 1 and year 6, alongside priority groups. We are also asking secondary schools, sixth form and further education colleges to offer some face-to-face support to supplement the remote education of year 10 and year 12 students and 16 to 19 learners in the first year of their course who are due to take key exams next year. This request applies to all schools, including in the independent sector, and including small schools and schools with alternative exam arrangements, transition years, curricula and pedagogy.

It is important that only the requested cohorts return at this time. As the guidance states, we are prioritising younger children in the first phases of wider opening, for several reasons. Firstly, because there is moderately high scientific confidence in evidence suggesting younger children are less likely to become unwell if infected with COVID-19; and secondly because evidence shows the particularly detrimental impact which time spent out of education can have upon them. In addition, older children are more likely to have higher numbers of contacts outside of school so pose a greater transmission risk, and they are typically better able to learn at home. It is therefore important that schools adhere to the guidance to ensure that only students that have been prioritised return to school, in the numbers and groupings that have been considered, minimising risks for them and their wider social groups and households.