Primary schools will be welcoming children back tomorrow despite some objections.

Bolton Council is wanting to ease parents' worry as schools across the borough prepare to welcome children back.

Cllr Anne Galloway, Bolton Council’s executive council member for children’s services, says she believes it is right that children are going back to school and that calls from unions and politicians to close schools across the country will just be adding to parents anxiety.

She said: “In Bolton we are supporting the headteachers in opening the primary schools on Monday as planned.

“We have seen far higher infection rates in the Borough in the first half of the Autumn term and all our schools remained open throughout despite the huge challenges.

"It is always a balance of risk – between the risk of transmission of the virus in a school setting and the risk to a generation of children continually having their learning and social development disrupted.

“Schools have spent a huge amount of time  and resources in setting up comprehensive risk assessments to limit transmission of the virus, making their settings as safe as possible, and they have played a vital role in test and trace to limit the transmission to the wider community.

“We are keeping the data and evidence of the new mutant strain of Covid under review and we are in constant conversations with public health.

"We will continue to do all we can to support primary schools at this time to remain open for learning as long as it is safe to do so.”

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson also encouraged parents to send their children back to school today amongst criticism from teaching unions and the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, that it may be unsafe to do so.

This is due to the rapid rise in coronavirus cases, especially in children, that has led to the closure of primary schools in London, but not the rest of the country.

The Prime Minister said: “Schools are safe. It is very, very important to stress that.

“I would advise all parents thinking about want to do, look at where your area is, overwhelmingly you’ll be in a part of the country where primary schools tomorrow will be open.”

Andy Burnham, however, said: “There are many parents in Greater Manchester waking up quite anxious this morning, teachers as well of course and support staff in schools, and children.

“So there’s a lot of people who are worried about what’s happening and I think the really important thing is this doesn’t become a big political row today.

“What we need to find is a practical way through all of this. I would say that the current course is not going to work.”

The National Education Union’s (NEU) joint general secretary, Dr Mary Bousted, said: “The danger is that by opening schools as levels of infection are rising so high and are already so high amongst pupils, then we’re not going to break that chain and our NHS will become overwhelmed so we said all schools should be closed for the first two weeks.

“We regret to have to say that, we don’t want to have to say the schools will close but our fear is if we don’t do something now, they’re going to have to be closed for a much longer period later on this month.”