A YORK head teacher says he'll be 'over the moon' once schools can re-open.

But he has urged the government not to rush into a re-opening if it means they will have to be closed again a few days later. 

James Rourke, the head of Lord Deramore’s Primary, spoke out as speculation mounts that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will on Monday set a date for schools to reopen following lockdown.

Mr Rourke said he would welcome a March 8 opening, provided it could be done safely. But the last thing children needed was to be sent back to school for a day or two, only to then be told to go home again, he said.

At the start of this term, many schools went back for just a single day, before being forced to close again.

At Lord Deramore’s, that first day was a training day, so children had not returned to school. Even so, the sudden reversal of policy left the school struggling to adapt, Mr Rourke said. Schools were given no more warning than anyone else - so he only found out at 8pm the evening before that he wouldn’t be able to re-open the next day. “How can you plan?” he said.

For schools which had already opened it was even worse, Mr Rourke said. “Their children had been back for one day. For a child, that’s awful. The Government need to stick with it. Don’t rush to open schools if you are going to close them again.”

Nevertheless, he said, he would be "over the moon" when schools could reopen safely. Children have already missed out on far too much, not just lessons, but also play, and sports, and the chance to be with friends and teachers, he said.

Mr Rourke said he was particularly worried about the impact on younger children - and on children with special needs, or from disadvantaged families.

The gap between them and other children had already been too wide, he said. “This lockdown will have exacerbated that.”

Mr Rourke said lockdown had also been a "nightmare for teachers" - especially at small schools like Lord Deramore’s. The school has 214 pupils and just seven full-time-equivalent teachers.

Throughout the most recent lockdown, a third of the school’s pupils have been taught in school, in small groups - while the remainder have been learning online at home.

That meant the school’s small pool of teachers had to juggle looking after children at school and providing online learning. There has been a misconception, Mr Rourke said, that teachers haven’t been working hard during lockdown. “They have actually been working harder than ever!”

The only way the school could cope, Mr Rourke said, was by taking on four extra bank staff - one teacher and three teaching assistants - at a cost of £15,000.

Heather Hawkins, whose two daughters Maple, 10, and Cora seven, go to the school, but have been home-learning during lockdown, said Lord Deramore’s had been "absolutely brilliant".

As well as three hours of online teaching each day, there have been regular Zoom meetings with teachers - and a weekly Zoom assembly on Friday afternoon, she said. “That’s become a highlight of the week.”

But Mr Rourke said it was vital that children got back to school so they could rediscover a sense of normality. Once schools do reopen, however, he counselled the Government against insisting on a high-pressure ‘catch-up’ approach that focussed purely on academic subjects.

“We cannot just focus on an academic catch-up,” he said. “We need to get the children back to normal first. Schools need to protect children’s mental health and well-being, and to give them back some school routine, and make them feel happy and content.”

To help prepare children for a return to school, Lord Deramore’s has laid on a two-week online programme of ‘cultural enrichment’ which will run from February 22 until March 5.

It will feature live online workshops with artists, poets, musicians and science teachers.

“Our children have missed out on over a year of high-quality educational experiences,” Mr Rourke said. “They haven’t been able to go on school visits, have visitors in class or take part in the usual activities which excite and enrich our school’s vibrant curriculum. Our ‘enrichment fortnight’ is one way of making up for these lost experiences.”