THE vast majority of primary schools in Swindon are open for pupils this week.

Figures from the borough council reveal 51 of the 65 nursery and primary schools welcomed back children in at least one of Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 on Monday.

Russell Holland, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for education said: “Over the past few weeks we’ve been working closely with schools and encouraging them to follow the guidance provided by the department of education and to open when they feel it’s safe to do so.

“We’ve provided support to schools around things like health and safety and encouraging schools to support each other as well.

“We’ve not heard of any significant problems so we’re enormously grateful to teachers, support staff and of course parents and the children themselves for taking these first steps back.

“In terms of next steps, it’s very much about monitoring and evaluating what we’re doing. Continuing to be cautious and careful and taking this step by step.”