The plan for all primary school years in England to go back to school before the end of term is to be dropped by the government, according to reports this morning.

There had been an aim for all primary pupils to spend four weeks in school before the summer break.

But it is no longer thought to be feasible and instead schools will be given “flexibility” over whether or not to admit more pupils, according to the BBC.

This follows head teachers’ warnings that a full primary school reopening before summer was “unrealistic”.

News: Secondaries not open ‘until September at the earliest’

Politics: Gove’s school space cuts ‘will hamper safe reopenings’

Background: Secondary school reopenings delayed to 15 June

Geoff Barton, general decretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The ‘ambition’ to bring back all primary year groups for a month before the end of the summer term was a case of the government over-promising something that wasn’t deliverable.

“It isn’t possible to do that while maintaining small class sizes and social bubbles, so we aren’t surprised that the policy has been jettisoned.”

Yesterday, health secretary Matt Hancock said the government is not planning to fully reopen secondary schools until September “at the earliest”.

Speaking at yesterday’s daily coronavirus briefing, health secretary Matt Hancock said it would take “ingenuity” to reopen schools more widely in a way that didn’t lead to the spread of the virus.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson is due to make a statement in the House of Commons today at 11.30am on the wider reopening of schools.

A Department for Education spokesperson would only confirm that this statement was happening and declined to comment on the BBC story.