THE Prime Minister has issued a plea to parents to send their children back to class when schools in England reopen next month.

Boris Johnson said the risk of contracting Covid-19 in schools is "very small", as he said pupils face greater harm by continuing to stay at home. 

This comes as more areas across England have faced local lockdown restrictions following a rise in the number of people testing positive for the virus.

But pupils in England have not been to class since March, when schools were closed except to look after vulnerable children and those of keyworkers.

Schools in Scotland reopened earlier this month, while those in Northern Ireland will welcome pupils again on Monday. English and Welsh schools will follow suit in September.

The PM said: “I have previously spoken about the moral duty to reopen schools to all pupils safely, and I would like to thank the school staff who have spent the summer months making classrooms Covid-secure in preparation for a full return in September.

“We have always been guided by our scientific and medical experts, and we now know far more about coronavirus than we did earlier this year.

“As the chief medical officer has said, the risk of contracting Covid-19 in school is very small and it is far more damaging for a child’s development and their health and wellbeing to be away from school any longer.

“This is why it’s vitally important that we get our children back into the classroom to learn and to be with their friends. Nothing will have a greater effect on the life chances of our children than returning to school.”

The PM's comments come after the UK’s chief medical officers issued a joint statement seeking to reassure parents that it was safe to send their children back to school.

They said “very few, if any” children and teenagers would come to long-term harm from the virus solely by attending school, while there was a “certainty” of harm from not returning.

A Public Health England (PHE) analysis, published on Sunday, found there were 67 single confirmed cases, four “co-primary cases” (two or more linked cases diagnosed at the same time) and 30 outbreaks of Covid-19 in schools during June.

It said the majority of cases linked to outbreaks were in staff and warned that school staff needed to be “more vigilant for exposure outside the school setting to protect themselves, their families and the educational setting”.

The analysis also said further school closures may be necessary in regions with increasing community infection but this should “be considered only in extremis”.

Dr Shamez Ladhani, paediatric infectious diseases specialist at PHE, who headed the monitoring of England’s schools, told The Times: “We need to educate the educators.

“There’s a clear need for a duty of care outside the school setting so staff need to protect themselves, and in turn other staff and pupils.”