At a glance: What parents need to know

SCHOOLS welcome children back to the classroom in England and Wales full-time this week – but what exactly do parents need to know? Here, The Mail on Sunday details the very latest Government guidance...

Schools are staggering lunch, break and start times and stepping up cleaning, with strict hygiene and cleaning protocols in place.

Nearly all have created ‘bubble’ groups of pupils, erected signs to direct pupils and parents around the school, as well as installing extra hand washing and sanitisation stations.

A small number of home test kits are being distributed to all schools for anyone who develops symptoms and is not easily able to get tested.

In the event of local lockdown restrictions, secondary school pupils and staff will wear face masks in communal areas where they can’t easily socially distance. Face coverings will not be worn in classrooms.

Primary school children will not need to wear a face covering.

If a pupil or staff member has a suspected case, classes will continue as normal while the affected person self-isolates and is tested.

But if a case is confirmed, health protection teams will advise the school how many pupils need to be sent home to isolate for 14 days and study online depending on the level of contact between the infected person and pupils in their ‘bubble’.

In a smaller ‘bubble’, such as a single class, all the pupils might have to be sent home to isolate.

For a bigger bubble, such as an entire year group, there is the option to send home all other pupils, but it could be just those who were in close proximity with a pupil with the virus.

If there are a significant numbers of infections, a school may as a last resort bring in a rota system. This would involve pupils spending two weeks in the classroom and then two studying remotely.

Schools should base their plans on a four-tier system to respond to changing l evels of cases. The default setting will be Tier 1, where all pupils attend full-time.

If health and education officials decide levels of infection are too high, schools could move to Tier 2, in which secondary pupils would go on to the part-time rota. Tier 3 would see most secondary school pupils study from home. Tier 4 would see all at home, except the children of key workers and vulnerable youngsters.