UK primary schools could begin to re-open as soon as 1 June under government plans to ease social distancing restrictions, The Sunday Telegraph has reported.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to announce the move to gradually re-open schools, among other revised measures that will relax nationwide lockdowns, on 10 May in an address to the nation, the newspaper reported.

Based on the UK’s current reduced Covid-19 infection rate, Johnson “is hoping” to put teachers on three weeks’ notice to re-open primary schools to all students, according to the report. Some studies have shown that young children are less at risk from the coronavirus and less likely to spread it.

Year 10 and 12 students, who saw their GCSE and A-level exams cancelled in March when the UK’s lockdown began, are then expected to form “the first wave of secondary pupils returning to school at a later point”, the newspaper reported.

A June re-opening would mark the beginning of the end to a months-long nationwide lockdown that has confined citizens to their homes, frozen businesses’ acitivites and ushered in a period of economic inertia.

The private school sector, in which many fee-paying parents have lost jobs and incomes, has been hammered by the Covid-19 pandemic, as it spurred requests for refunds and discounts and blocked pipelines of lucrative international students. Some UK independent schools have already succumbed to the virus’ impact – and more closures are expected to come.

But while the 1 June date is being floated, Grant Shapps, UK transport secretary, told Sky News: “It’s no secret that of course we want the kids to go back to school, but I’d be over-egging it to say there’s a date in place; there’s a plan in place.”

A day before The Sunday Telegraph broke the news of the development, the chairman of a private school group told this publication: “Rumour is, announcement on 7 May, and gradual opening from 1 June.”

In an interview with the Sun on Sunday, Johnson said he wanted primary schools re-opened “as fast as we can”.

Wales’ First Minister, Mark Drakeford, has said he is “talking about the beginning of June” as a prospective date on which to re-open schools during an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr.