More than half of News readers don't want their children to go back to school in June, according to survey

In a survey of more than 1,000 readers, 52 per cent said they were not at all comfortable - and 14 per cent said they were not very comfortable – with their children returning to school in early June.

In comparison, 32 per cent said they were to some degree comfortable with the idea.

It follows an announcement by prime minister Boris Johnson on Sunday regarding the easing of the national lockdown, with the hope to have children as young as four back in classrooms in England after the half-term holidays, if the UK’s lockdown status was lowered by then.

The announcement led to headteachers and school senior leaders across Portsmouth expressing their serious concerns at the government’s proposal.

Social distancing was ‘impossible’ to maintain with just 17 key workers’ children in attendance, according to the deputy headteacher of a Portsmouth school.

Sharon Peckham, the deputy head of Meredith Infant and Isambard Brunel Junior, said: ‘I think the government are taking a chance and hoping for the best.

‘Trying to get children back to school is the right thing to do but I don’t know how we do it safely.’

Parents are equally sceptical, with one Havant parent, who has four children aged 10 to 16 and asked not to be named, saying there was ‘too many unknowns’ facing parents and their children.

The 33-year-old, whose youngest daughter attends Bidbury Junior School, in Bedhampton, said: ‘My youngest daughter is a little bit scared to go back to school – she doesn’t want to go back at all.

‘She knows it won’t be like before the lockdown.

‘And it does worry me about how social distancing will work.

‘There’s too many unknowns.’

The survey has also shown that the majority of people are reluctant to stop working from home – even after they feel it is safe for them to return to their workplace.

One in ten said they would like to work entirely from home, and 28 per cent said they would like to work mostly from home, with 40 per cent saying they want to work some of the time from home.

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