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

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.

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.

The government informed secondary schools the day before they broke up for the Christmas holidays that they were to make arrangements to test millions of pupils in the first week of term - before all returned for the second week of term.

In a letter sent to parents before Christmas from the Priory School in Hitchin, seen by Nub News, head teacher Geraint Edwards said: "The aim would be to roll out a larger testing programme if required towards the end of January.

"Although there has been much said about recruiting volunteers, the issue of DBS checks, induction and safeguarding training makes such an approach logistically burdensome.

"Although we will not be mass testing from January 4, the DfE has made it clear that all schools should have a staggered start to the beginning of the term.

"This is because we all know that there will be a spike in infections after the Christmas holidays. We saw a similar occurrence after October half term when we had an increase in Covid cases."

Mr Edwards also confirmed in the letter to parents sent before Christmas that Years 7, 8 and 9 at the Priory had already been pencilled in to have remote online learning that will follow their timetable - with live lessons and all students expected to be in attendance.

Along with other schools in Hitchin, the Priory is expected to give an update following Mr Williamson's speech.