West Yorkshire's children and parents prepare to go back to school
Children in secondary schools will have to wear masks in classrooms, and be tested for Covid twice a week
From Monday 8th March, primary, secondary schools and colleges will open to all children in England in the first step of the Government’s roadmap out of the COVID-19 restrictions.
New safety measures:
Two COVID-19 tests each week for teachers, secondary school students and parents who have no symptoms.
Staff and pupils in secondary schools and colleges are advised to wear face masks in all areas, where social distancing is not possible.
Existing protective measures will be in place including bubbles, frequent hand washing, opening windows to let fresh air into the classrooms more regularly and staggered break and lunch times.
Testing:
Students will be shown how to take three tests in their school or college so they can then do it confidently at home.
All teaching staff and secondary school pupils will then be asked to do rapid lateral flow tests at home twice a week after they return to the classroom.
Ahead of returning to school, Dr Amir Khan from Bradford said:
"Children may get physical symptoms like headaches, lack of sleep, that might alert you to anxiety. But listen to your child, tell them it's normal to feel like this. Tell them about the measures put in at school to keep them safe.
"None of this is ideal, testing isn't ideal, wearing masks isn't ideal, but we aren't living in ideal times, we are living in a pandemic.
"We all want to come out of this lockdown, we all want schools to continue to remain open and one of the key components for that is regular testing."