Sir Daniel said that children in reception and year one develop important social skills and the foundations of reading, and missing this time in school will lead to learning loss, especially for more disadvantaged children.
He added that those in year six will benefit emotionally from going back to school, seeing their friends and preparing for the transfer to secondary school.
He said each of the schools in the Harris Federation is undertaking a risk assessment. He said: “OK, the virus was there at the end of March. It will still be there after a 10-week shutdown.
"But our understanding of it is better now. We have had time to think about how to operate and what we can do to reduce risk and there does seem to be a fair amount of evidence that suggests very young children are not great spreaders.”
