School closures – Exams CANCELLED in May and June as coronavirus hits UK

EXAMS will not take place in May and June this year amid fears the spread of coronavirus will increase over the next few days.

Boris Johnson today announced students would not sit their exams as he confirmed schools across the country would close from Friday until further notice.

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It is understood that SATs, GCSEs and A levels will all be affected.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson today announced: "We will not go ahead with assessments or exams and we will not be publishing performance tables this academic year."

He added: "I know not all of this is going to be easy. I am asking nurseries schools and colleges to be at the forefront our our national response to this crisis."

Boris Johnson added: "We will make sure their progress will not be impeded.

"We will make sure they will in time get the qualifications they need."

The BBC reported pupils will not sit exams but still be awarded final grades.

Performance tables for this academic year will also not be published.

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• And a baby and a nine-month-old boy have now got coronavirus

Scotland and Wales had earlier today confirmed schools would close.

The move to close schools comes two weeks before kids are meant to break up for the Easter holiday.

Experts were previously sceptical that shutting schools would help dampen the peak of the deadly coronavirus bug.

Today's school news comes after a petition demanding the Government “#closetheschools” amassed hundreds of thousands of signatures.

And the number of cases in the UK have today hit 2,626 as the death toll reached 104.

Mr Johnson told the nation this evening that the spread was "slowing" - but he would go "further and faster" if he needed to in the coming days.

And he added he would not rule out putting London on lockdown to slow the spread of the disease.

He added: "We've always said that we are going to do the right measures at the right time," he said, when asked when the capital will be shut down.

"Actually I think a lot of people are taking a real heroic effort to comply with the advice we've given but as I've said tonight, and in the past few days, we keep everything under continuous review and we will not hesitate in bringing forward further and faster measures where we think that is necessary."

A nine-month-old boy in Manchester is just one of the latest cases reported this week while a baby in Norfolk was confirmed with the virus.

The parents of Cassian, Myroslava and Callum Caotes, were then stunned when staff put a “big sign up” near them which read “suspected case”.

Cassian, who is just nine months old, was then assessed by a doctor who confirmed he had the symptoms and said: “Yeah, it’s the coronavirus strand.”

Meanwhile, the UK’s youngest coronavirus victim was last night named as 45-year-old Craig Ruston - as his devastated wife paid an emotional tribute.

The "amazing" father-of-two, from Kettering, Northants, who had motor neurone disease, succumbed to the killer bug in hospital yesterday.

Boris Johnson this week announced drastic new measures in an attempt to slow the spread of the bug - with confirmed cases worldwide today topping 200,000 worldwide.

The PM last night promised a £350bn 'war-time' bailout to stop coronavirus from wrecking the economy.

His people’s bailout will be the biggest rescue package in peacetime.