Data shows just one-in-three eligible youngsters returned to school in Hertfordshire

It's still ‘school’s out’ for the majority of children who were invited back into the classroom last week, according to data released by Hertfordshire County Council.

Schools have been closed – to all except the children of essential workers – in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus since March 23.

But last Monday (June 1) youngsters in reception, year one and year six were allowed to return to their primary schools – so long as places were available.

Now data – collected by the Department for Education and released by the county council – reveals that just one in three of those pupils (35 per cent) in Hertfordshire turned up.

And it suggests that, on average, where schools did ‘re-open’ in the county just 37 additional pupils showed up.

However those figures only take account of the 340 schools in Hertfordshire that responded to the Department for Education survey – and not the 79 that did not.

Of those schools that responded, 316 said they were open for at least one of the additional year groups, which include nursery, reception, year one and year six.

That indicates that at least 75 per cent of the county’s primary schools did ‘re-open’, which the county council says compares favourably to the national figure of 51 per cent.

Commenting on the data executive member for education, libraries and localism Cllr Terry Douris said the “vast majority” of schools had opened on June 1, after weeks of planning and preparation.

But he said re-opening depended on the circumstances of each school and the extent to which the well-being of the school community can be assured.

And he said: “Massive thanks to all our headteachers, support staff, parents and pupils for their help and co-operation during this phased period of transition from the Covid-19 lockdown back to school.

“We appreciate it is a huge step to take after weeks of isolation and can assure them of our unstinting support to make this process as safe and stress-free as possible.”

The data – collected by the DfE – includes responses from 340 of the county’s 419 primary schools.

And the county council says inset days and cleaning days were among the reasons why one-in-five of the county’s primary schools did not respond.

Among the county’s schools where the majority of pupils invited to return showed up was Round Diamond Primary School, in Stevenage.

Round Diamond headteacher Zoe Phillips said: “It’s been a really busy couple of weeks and we’ve had about 170 children returning, which is about 75 per cent of the children that we invited to come back to school.

“We’ve stuck with a really firm risk assessment to make sure that staff and children are safe, and we’ve seen some really positive results in welcoming the children back.”