PARENTS with conditions making them vulnerable to Covid-19 said today that they are highly concerned about children returning to school this week despite the government insisting that it is safe.

A woman with an immune condition has said she feels like she has “no choice” but to send her daughter back to school or face fines.

Jennifer East, from Clacton-on-Sea, has been shielding with common variable immunodeficiency and feels it is “really not safe” to “open the bubble to a load of schoolchildren” by her 11-year-old daughter returning to the classroom.

As her daughter will be in secondary school, she will have to wear a mask at school. Private transport has also been arranged by the school.

Ms East added: “They are doing this because of my condition. They will try and help me as much as possible, but I have said that if I feel it’s not working, or think the risk is to high, I will be taking her out of school again. I will just have to face the consequences if that happens.”

A teacher from Thames Valley, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he is “nervous” about sending his two children back to school because his wife is shielding.

He added: “We haven’t been given any information from the government since being told shielding was being suspended last month. We don’t feel that a lot has changed about the nature of the virus to suddenly make this safe.

“Given that schools were shut in late March we are sceptical of the government’s assertion that children don’t pass Covid-19 on.”

Education minister Nick Gibb said schools have been given a “small number” of home testing kits, and that staff or pupils who show symptoms will be “asked to return home and then to take a test.”

He added that the government will make a decision “very soon” on whether to delay next year’s GCSE and A-Level exams, as called for by education unions and Labour.

In the Commons, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said he is “deeply sorry” to school pupils who had their grades unfairly downgraded across England during this year’s exam season.

Shadow education secretary Kate Green said the government let the interests of children “take a back seat while the Secretary of State U-turned on everything from centre-assessed grades to face masks” while “letting officials take the blame.”

She added: “He must now take responsibility for ensuring that a summer of incompetence does not descend further into an autumn of disaster and dismay.”