now all schools and further education
colleges in england will be fully open
from monday the 8th of march secondary
school students
will be regularly tested using rapid
lateral flow tests
and until easter face coverings will be
compulsory in class where social
distancing
is not possible in scotland and wales
some younger primary school children
started to return today our education
editor brahman jeffries reports now
from merseyside
just two weeks more of this key worker
moms like gemma dropping off
waiting for schools to go back to normal
it's about time
the kids need the routine they need the
structure to the day
and if we don't start getting back to
normal soon a chilled generation of
children
have massive mental health social
problems that we're not going to be able
to fix
that's the last one though thanks from
the school
and the local bakery food deliveries for
parents
first stop is tracy
[Music]
ready for her son to go back you very
much
often amazing i think it'd be better for
the children i think
they need to be in school lane and they
need to be mixing again they need to get
back to
normality but joanne with four at home
told me she's less certain if it's not
safe i'd rather they stayed off
i really would i don't i'd rather keep
them at home
if the time's not right for them to go
back what's difficult for primary pupils
no
testing instead continued testing for
staff
to keep schools open secondary schools
already testing staff are gearing up for
pupils so we've got
four desks set ready for testing when
the students come back
teenagers will have to do four tests on
return
three at school one at home we think we
can do about 400
students 450 students a day maximum and
do it safely and properly
and then from the prime minister more
detail for schools to take in
secondary pupils will be asked to test
twice a week
at home i mean i have concerns about how
we ensure that the tests at home are
being done
effectively and efficiently i also worry
that it's not always easy
to carry such tasks out at home by some
parents
so how are we going to guarantee that
there's consistency
of approach by everybody when these
corridors start filling up
is going to rely on a lot of trust trust
in teenagers to test themselves
properly and to report the results
because if they don't
there's nothing a school can do except
appeal to their parents teenagers will
have to wear masks
not just in corridors but in england's
classrooms too
wherever they can't socially distance
northern ireland has also advised masks
in secondary classrooms
their return starts with primary pupils
in two weeks
in wales the youngest primary pupils
were back today
when teenagers return a promise of
testing
scotland's youngest also back today
across the uk the first steps to get
children's lives back to normal browman
jeffries
bbc news