Nicola Sturgeon: Not for London to decide when we re-open schools

Highlighting a comment from the Welsh Government that it would be up to it when schools opened in Wales, Nicola Sturgeon wrote on Twitter: “Same for Scotland. @scotgov – in discussion with local authorities – will decide safe timetable for re-opening schools.

“And we will keep pupils, parents and the public properly informed along the way.”

Her position was underlined later by Health Secretary Jeane Freeman at the daily press briefing on coronavirus, where she pointed to the importance of understanding how the virus was being transmitted – the reproductive or R number – in weighing up how decisions were made.

“We are, as you know, working our way through all of the options and with the clinical and scientific advice to understand where we have got to now with the R number – the reproduction number for the virus – and that’s what we are saying right now,” she said. “There are encouraging signs but progress is fragile.”

A report in the Sunday Telegraph said primary schools could be due to reopen as soon as June 1, as part of Boris Johnson’s blueprint for gradually easing the current social distancing restrictions.

The paper reported that the Prime Minister is expected to unveil the UK Government’s “roadmap” out of the coronavirus lockdown in an address to the nation next Sunday, after ministers take stock of a study showing the rate of the virus’s transmission in the UK.

Quoting Whitehall sources, it stated that based on the current, reduced infection rate, Johnson was hoping to put teachers on three weeks’ notice to reopen primary schools in England to all pupils on June 1.

It said that some secondary pupils could return later so longer so long as there was no risk of the R number increasing and leading to a second wave of the virus.

The report added that the earliest possible return of primary schoolchildren is intended to minimise the threat to “early years development” and help parents to return to work.

Last week, the R number stood between 0.5 and one, with the Telegraph reporting that the figure gave ministers optimism that they can reopen primary schools as early as June 1.

A Whitehall source said the move was “crucial for economic reasons, to get things moving, but also for educational reasons”, adding “early years development is very important”.

Meanwhile, secondary school pupils “can do a lot more at home and online. They are not as pressing as primary school children, who we know need a lot of attention”.

On Saturday, Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary, said: “Home learning is not easy, particularly when one or both parents are trying to work from home as well.”

A study by scientists at the University of Dundee found that resuming more than just 10% of pre-lockdown contacts with other people “would risk a second peak”.

On Saturday, Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer in England, said there were “some signs that potentially younger children are less susceptible to disease and potentially transmit it less”.

Officials in England are believed to be working on detailed plans for the safest way to reopen schools, with possibilities including temporary limits on class sizes.

Reopening schools without adequate testing would lead to a catastrophic rise in Covid-19, a teachers’ union has claimed as it dismisses government plans to adapt summer holidays.

Last month Larry Flanagan, the general secretary of the EIS teaching union, cautioned against a rapid return to the classroom.

“The litmus test for schools potentially reopening needs to be: is there capacity around testing, tracing and isolating to prevent a catastrophic increase in the rate of infection? Unless that is in place, schools cannot reopen,” he said.

“Until that regime is established, neither teachers nor parents could be reassured that schools would be safe places. The EIS view is that even reopening schools in August remains a significant challenge, let alone unhelpful speculation about earlier dates.”