Exams will be cancelled and replaced with assessments, and free school meals offered to those who are most vulnerable during lockdown, the education secretary has said, with schools set to be the first thing to re-open if the vaccine rollout goes as planned.

The UK’s top education minister Gavin Williamson told MPs on 6 January that while the details are still being “fine-tuned”, summer examinations will be replaced with “a form of teacher-assessed grades with training and support provided to ensure these are awarded fairly and consistently across the country”.