Pupils have been home for more than a month, with No10 now under huge amount pressure to ease the coronavirus lockdown and reopen them. However, more than 60 per cent of Express.co.uk readers think they should remain closed until September. The cancellation of GCSEs and A-level exams have left students and parents worried about their future.

62 per cent of Express.co.uk readers, (1,267 of the 2,136 people who took part in the poll) said they did not want schools to reopen until September.

Only slightly more than a third of readers, 36 per cent (782 people), thought schools should reopen before September.

Another one per cent of respondents, 42 people, said they did not know.

Schools have been closed for five weeks, with the exception of the children of key workers and vulnerable pupils.

There is due to be a review on when schools will reopen on May 7.

Although more than 20,000 people have died from coronavirus in the UK, there are soaring concerns about the disastrous affect on the economy lockdown is having.

Education Minister Kirsty Williams has warned that not all pupils will return to school once these coronavirus restrictions are lifted.

The Scottish government suggested there could be limits on class sizes in schools, if they were to reopen.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, said: “Classrooms may have to be redesigned to allow social distancing, so maybe not all children can go back to, and be at, school at the same time.

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“Do we have to take classes and divide them into two, where half of the class is there one week and the other half another week?”

Boris Johnson has said any changes to the lockdown would be carried out “with the maximum possible transparency”.

Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has called on ministers to begin talking to teachers and having conversations about what new arrangements could look like.

The headteachers union ASCL has said it doesn’t think schools should reopen until at the earliest June 1.

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Secretary of State, Dominic Raab, has said it would be “inconceivable” for children to go back to school without any physical distancing.

Educational Charity The Sutton Trust has warned that two thirds of pupils have not taken part in any online learning while they have been at home.

Authorities are concerned that it will be the most vulnerable children who suffer the most as schools remain closed.

Schools are due to reopen in Germany from May 4 and authorities have new guidelines to adhere to social distancing.

These include spacing between desks, breaks at different times and more facilities for pupils to wash their hands.

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