Decision on when to reopen schools in England will be made next week

The Government is to make a decision next week on when schools across England should reopen after the Christmas break.

Schools have already been told to teach children remotely for the first week of January so that teachers can train in how to administer coronavirus tests.

Now six million more people in England will be under Tier 4 restrictions - the lockdown level - from Boxing Day.

The Government was due to meet this week to decide when schools should reopen for all pupils again.

But that decision has been delayed by ongoing Brexit negotiations, according to the TES.

Yesterday Communities Minister Robert Jenrick said classes would restart in person in "the first few weeks of January".

But there are fears the two new mutant strains of coronavirus now in the UK - which spread much more rapidly than the original strains - are also potentially more infectious for children.

Professor Neil Ferguson told the Commons Science and Technology Committee the new strain of coronavirus is "everywhere".

He said: "The critical question is what happens in January and the extent we want to make public health measures more uniform across the country if the new variant is everywhere."

There are fears that the mutant coronavirus strains spread more easily among children.

A source told Tes: "A final decision has not been made yet. I think there are basically two camps.

"One which thinks we should wait to see what happens with case numbers over Christmas time because over the two weeks it could resolve itself, and then another camp which thinks that this will not resolve itself over two weeks, that the situation could get worse and that a decision needs be made to move schools online."