THREE tier schools have been allowed to accept some non-year 6 pupils it has emerged.

In May the government announced the aim to reopen schools this month to ‘key year group’ pupils in reception, year 1 and year 6 classes.

But, as we reported, concerns were raised that in the county, for schools in the three tier school system, year 6 was not a ‘transitional’ year so it didn’t make sense to bring them back over another year group that better met the government’s definition.

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Worcestershire County Council has now clarified schools can bring back non-year 6 pupils in these cases after further questions were raised about schools in Evesham opening to other year groups.

Bengeworth CE Academy and St Richard's Church are among the schools where year 5 children are back.

Sarah Wilkins, director of education and early help at the authority, said: “

Non- statutory guidance on preparing for the wider opening of schools from 1st June refers to the importance of transition in planning for wider opening. Schools have considered this guidance along with the protective measures guidance to formulate risk assessments to make decisions about which children they invite back to school.”

Suzie Bourne, headteacher at Witton Middle School in Droitwich, said “in theory” they were able to take on more pupils outside of year 6 but, with that year group returning to their school yesterday, and with an increased number of keyworker children returning, it had not been possible to have other children back.

She said: “The government inserted some extra guidance about reopening that talked about needing parity (for year 6) , so we had to reopen to year 6.

"The council is right in saying we have our own context and we have been allowed to make decisions on how many pupils we can admit. In theory, you can open to other year groups, but it comes down to capacity.

"The flexibility I had originally asked for I don’t really think is there. It is a little a bit of leeway.”