the education secretary gavin williamson
has dropped his plan to keep primary
schools in 10 boroughs in london open
after pressure from councils our
education correspondent dan johnson
is with me now dan there's another very
swift change of policy here explain
what's happened
yes this decision was only made two days
ago when the government the education
secretary
said that primary schools in some parts
of london
and in some counties around it needed to
stay closed next week because of the
level
of the virus we can see on the map the
areas that were involved
some london boroughs and some areas
around they're highlighted in red but
not all
primary schools right across london and
this caused
some concern amongst local leaders
because you can see there the boroughs
highlighted in red are the ones
which had to keep children at home the
ones in grey were told that pupils would
have to come in even though some of
those boroughs had been asking to close
their schools before christmas because
of the level of the virus
it was pointed out that the levels of
the virus didn't seem to match which
areas had been told to stay open which
had been told to close
and local politicians highlighted that
some children actually travel
across borough boundaries to actually
reach school so this evening
the education secretary says he has
reviewed the decision and the data and
now
all the primary schools right across the
capital will stay closed next week so
that's more than a million
primary school pupils now across the
south east who will be learning from
home next week that's
a challenge for parents in terms of
child care and home learning
it's frustrating for teachers who have
again highlighted that this is
complicated late decision making but the
education secretary says his priority
has been to try to keep schools open
wherever possible and this is a
fast-moving situation but
kevin williamson got a bit of a
reputation last year for making
decisions then having to change them
it's only the first day of the year and
he's had to change a big one again dan
thank you