Schools will not be reopening immediately after February half term as early plans for potential ‘summer schools’ were revealed to help pupils catch up.

In a statement to parliament this lunchtime, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that following the return of parliament from recess on February 22 the Government intended to set out the results of that review and its plan for taking the country out of lockdown.

That would depend on the R rate and deaths falling as expected.

He spoke of a phased approach at easing restrictions, beginning with the principle that opening schools must be the priority.

“The first sign of normality should be children going back to classrooms,” he said.

Mr Johnson said schools would be given two weeks’ notice before reopening and for that reason it would not be possible to reopen schools immediately after the February half term.

He therefore hoped to reopen schools from Monday, March 8, with other parts of the economy in phases after that.

The Government will prolong arrangements for free school meals until children return to the classroom.

It will also provide £300 million of new money to schools for tutoring, with Mr Johnson saying the government was also working up initiatives for summer schools and an extended period of catch up.

He said the government recognised it would take more than a year to catch up.

Leader of the opposition, Kier Starmer, called on the Government to vaccinate all teachers during February half term. 

Mr Johnson also spoke about the need to strengthen the UK’s borders even further, to prevent new variants of the virus arriving.

England has already closed all travel corridors and anyone coming into the country must have proof of a negative test in the 72 hours prior.

They must also complete a passenger form and quarantine for ten days on arrival.

Mr Johnson stressed: “ It is illegal to leave home to travel abroad for leisure purposes. We will enforce this at airports.”

He added that England had also banned travel from 22 countries where there are known variants, including South Africa and Portugal.

And now, he said, the Government would require all arrivals who cannot be refused access, such as UK nationals, to isolate in government accommodation such as isolation hotels for ten days.

They will be met at the airport and taken there, with the Government actively working up plans to bring these in action as soon as possible.

With regards to the strains of lockdown, Mr Johnson said: “We will not persist for a day longer than is necessary but nor can we relax to soon. If we do we run the risk of our NHS coming under greater pressure and to stay in those restrictions for longer.

“Our efforts appear to have reduced the R rate but we do not have enough data to know when it will be safe to reopen our economy.”

More than 37,000 patients are now in hospital with Covid – almost double the peak.

Yesterday saw the overall number of UK deaths pass 100,000, making it the highest death toll in Europe.

However, Mr Johnson said more than 13 per cent of the entire England population had now been vaccinated, with three quarters of elderly care home residents.

“Both the vaccines we are offering remain effective against the new variant,” he added.