Headteacher of Brookside Academy appears on Good Morning Britain to talk about return of pupils

The headteacher of Brookside Academy in Street has appeared on the ITV show Good Morning Britain today (June 10) to talk about the return of some pupils following the coronavirus lockdown.

Brian Walton appeared live on the show, which is hosted by Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, from the school grounds where he revealed that he was pleased it was an early start with some children in school at 7am, because he probably would not have slept anyway.

Mr Walton said: "We've been planning this for many weeks, probably actually when lockdown started as we knew the children would come back.

"We're going from a 30-place provision into 100 today but we've already had provision in place.

"Schools have never been closed, we've always been providing for key worker and vulnerable children, but it's taken meticulous plans, risk assessments, consultation with staff, consultation with parents to use the whole of the school start as Ground Zero.

"Like probably most of the teachers right now, I'm glad it was a really early start because I probably wouldn't have slept."

The school has had to convert its canteen into a Reception year classroom, and has paid for a marquee to be converted to be used as another classroom to meet demand.