On Monday the 22nd of February 2021 Boris Johnson announced that schools in England will be allowed to reopen from the 8th of March. As the cases of covid have begun to drop in England the government have deemed it save for students return to school for in person lessons. This will be the first time many students return to school since the new year.
All schools will have to follow the rules set out by the government which they have put in place to try to decrease the spread of covid. All students and staff will be expected to wear masks whilst inside their secondary school/ collage buildings unless they are able to have 2m social distancing. Students are expected to be tested twice-weekly initially at school and then at home similarly staff will be tested regularly. By regularly testing students and staff it will be easier to identify covid even when no symptoms are present so the individual and the people, they have been around can go into self-isolation for ten days.
There has been a range of reactions from students as some are excited to return to school either to see friends again or to get the best out of their education whilst others are worried it is too soon to return due to covid. When asked about her opinion on schools reopening Rose, who is in year 12, said “I'm looking forward to going back to college, however part of me is worried that it isn't safe to do so yet and waiting a couple more weeks could be more beneficial/ reassuring.” Rose went on to say, “I personally would prefer to continue online learning until the cases go down a bit more and there are more vaccines administrated, however I understand why the government want us to go back.”
In a few weeks England will come out of their 3rd lockdown with the schools reopening being the first part of the government's plan for lifting of restrictions, however their plans have not worked particularly well in the past so let us hope its third time lucky with this one.
