Herts County Council have reacted to the government announcement on schools returning in 2021.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has indicated secondary schools in areas with the highest Covid infection rates would 'physically' stay closed, with children learning online next week.

In a speech to the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Williamson said secondary schools in the worst hit areas of the country will stay closed for a fortnight after the Christmas holidays to the vast majority of students.

Mr Williamson added that the majority of primary schools in England will reopen as planned on Monday, January 4, but the return of secondary school pupils will be delayed to Monday, January 18 unless they are 'exam year students' who will return a week earlier on Monday, January 11.

Speaking after the statement made by Mr Williamson, councillor Terry Douris, Cabinet Member for Education, Libraries and Localism, said: "I would like to reassure all our residents that Hertfordshire County Council will be supporting school leadership teams across the county, following the Government announcement regarding the staggered re-opening of schools for the spring term.

"We recognise that disruption to education causes difficulties, but the health and safety of our pupils, staff, families and residents is of the utmost importance to both the government and Hertfordshire County Council.

"We are currently working on arrangements to be made for vulnerable children and children of critical workers, to continue attending school in some capacity.

"Schools will be reviewing their risk assessments to ensure safety within schools can be maintained."

With the country, including Hitchin and north Herts, effectively heading for a third national lockdown, Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted the latest clampdown was 'absolutely necessary' to slow the transmission of the new variant of Covid.

The approval of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine on Wednesday morning brought hope - but the rollout of the lifesaving jabs to the vulnerable will take months, meaning restrictions will be tightened further in early 2021.

The announcement was made as the number of Covid cases continues to surge despite Hitchin and the rest of Hertfordshire was placed into Tier 4 restrictions just before Christmas.

Councillor Douris added: "Since the start of the outbreak, schools have adapted to the ever-changing situation and staff have worked incredibly hard to enable many thousands of pupils to engage in remote learning organised by their schools, with tasks being set daily through a variety of online resources.

"Once again I would like to take this opportunity to thank all education staff across the county for their constant resilience and hard work during these challenging times.

"I can confirm the heads of each of our schools in Hertfordshire will be contacting the families of all pupils to provide information about their specific opening plans and provision of free school meals."