Back to school for North East pupils in first stage of 'roadmap out of lockdown'

Monday marks the start of a new week and for schools across the North East and North Yorkshire it marked the end of homeschooling.

For months now, parents and children have got to grips with moving the classroom to the living room, but now, as part of the first stage of the Government's plans to ease out of lockdown, students are returning to school.

Teachers have had to adapt to online learning during the pandemic, but some say the hard work starts now. Weeks of preparations have gone into getting ready to face the reality of the amount of learning lost during two schools closures within 12 months.

Since the school year began in September, children have spent almost as many weeks out of the classroom as they have inside, due to lockdown. Options now being considered by the government to help youngsters catch up include a longer school day, or shorter school holidays.

As part of measures to fully reopen schools as safely as possible, the government has introduced a testing system.

Teachers and secondary school students will be expected to get tested for Covid-19 regularly. The government is giving millions of children access to rapid testing under its roadmap plans for schools to safely reopen from March 8.

It is hoped that measures, including regular testing and face masks in corridors, will help ensure GCSE pupils and A-level students do not miss out on any more of their education because of the pandemic.

It had been suggested that secondary students would be required to wear masks at all times throughout the school day, however an education minister has said students will not be forced to wear face coverings, as some will be "anxious and nervous" about wearing them.

Children’s minister Vicky Ford said secondary school pupils should be "strongly encouraged" to wear masks but has decided against making their use mandatory due to pupil anxiety.

The Department for Education is advising secondary school and college students to wear face coverings wherever social distancing cannot be maintained, including in the classroom.