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11th May 2020

Phased opening of early years settings and schools to more pupils from 1 June

Yesterday, the Prime Minister addressed the nation on coronavirus. The Prime Minister announced that from 1 June at the earliest, primary pupils may be able to begin going back into school in stages, beginning with Reception, year 1 and year 6. Our ambition is that secondary pupils facing exams next year will get some time with their teachers before the summer holidays. We will also ask childcare settings to prepare to open for more children from 1 June.

We will publish further guidance setting out more information for early years, schools and colleges later today. We will send a second email update once they are available on GOV.​UK.

The transcript and recording of the Prime Minister’s address to the nation can be found here:

Updated guidance on early years initial teacher training (ITT) requirements

We have updated our guidance for providers that offer early years ITT to reflect the measures to be taken during the coronavirus outbreak.

The guidance can be found here:

Updated guidance on the actions for further education colleges and providers during the coronavirus outbreak

We have updated our guidance on the actions for further education colleges and providers during the coronavirus outbreak. This update includes new sections on high needs funding for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and traineeship flexibilities, updates on functional skills flexibility in apprenticeships and the acceptance of confirmation emails for qualification achievement from awarding organisations.

The guidance can be found here:

Updated guidance on conducting a special educational needs and disability (SEND) risk assessment during the coronavirus outbreak

We have updated our guidance for settings managing children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities during the coronavirus outbreak. The guidance has been updated to reflect the SEND regulation changes, new information on how the guidance affects children and young people with an education, health and care (EHC) plan and a social worker, new information on how to keep staff and pupils safe and reducing the risk of infection in educational settings.

The guidance can be found here: