CHERYL PEEBLES

Parents across Courier Country had mixed feelings as they sent their children back to school last week.

While some were determined there must be a full return, a few were so anxious about the risk they decided to keep their children off.

Most were somewhere in the middle – eager their children get the education they are entitled to and a return to some semblance of normality, yet anxious they may be exposed to infection in the event of an outbreak.

So, in just the fifth day of schools reopening, the news two Perthshire pupils and a person connected with a Dundee school have tested positive is a situation many had dreaded. We all knew, with Covid still out there, there would be cases diagnosed among pupils. But not, perhaps, so soon.

Only last week, we published photos and videos of smiling children walking through school gates at last to be reunited with their friends and teachers. Each and every one of more than 300 schools across Perth and Kinross, Dundee, Angus and Fife was risk assessed and detailed plans developed to minimise the chance of infection spreading.

Public health officials put processes in place ready to spring into action in the event of a case being reported connected to a school. Now these plans and processes are being put to the test, with more than 40 people connected to the Perthshire schools told to isolate at home in an effort to prevent further infection.

The scientific advice on which reopening of schools was based was the low infection rate among children and some evidence they were less likely to pass on the virus.

Any evidence of transmission within schools – which so far there is not, either here or in clusters in Lanark and Glasgow – could put fulltime schooling at risk and blended learning contingency plans may need to come into play.