Thousands of pupils in England will begin to return to school today for the first time since the coronavirus lockdown. Education and childcare settings have only been open to priority groups since March 23 as part of national social distancing measures to limit the spread of Covid-19.
And today - June 1 - pupils in reception, year 1 and year 6 will return to resume classroom education. However, several scientists have suggested it is too early to lift restrictions and could cause infections to rapidly rise again.
Ministers insist the time is right to ease the lockdown because the Government has met its five tests to do so and the rate of infection, or R value, has been consistently below one.