Schools are back... as long as you don’t chat at the gates

THE phased reopening of schools could be slowed down if parents socialise or go back to their place of work, Nicola Sturgeon has warned.

The First Minister yesterday pleaded with parents not to use the return of pupils to classrooms as an excuse to meet others for coffee or stop working from home.

She warned that the mixing of adults and increased interactions would risk a rise in coronavirus cases.

From Monday, the first lockdown restrictions will be eased since the beginning of this year – with primary one, two and three children returning to schools.

Senior secondary pupils will also be allowed to attend in small numbers if they have to complete practical assessments for their qualifications.

Miss Sturgeon has pledged a ‘cautious’ easing of lockdown restrictions in the coming months, with getting children back into education her top priority. However, she warned that if the return of schools leads to a more relaxed attitude from parents and other adults the process could be delayed.

Miss Sturgeon said that the virus spreads ‘when people come together’.

She added: ‘So any opportunities that people might be having over the next period that we haven’t been having over the past few weeks, if people aren’t careful, will lead to the virus spreading again.

‘I’m not blaming parents for that, or trying to suggest that it’s school gates in particular, it’s adults coming together.

‘What the evidence does tell us is when we have schools back – even partially – it’s not so much the transmission in schools that can lead to greater case numbers, it’s often what comes around that.’

Miss Sturgeon said it was ‘understandable’ that parents who have been home schooling and working from home recently ‘might think we’ll go back to the workplace’. She added: ‘Or you might have a coffee, although there is nowhere open to go in and have coffees right now, but you might choose to have coffee with another parent for example when you are dropping the kids off at school.

‘So it’s not intrinsically about the school drop off, it’s about people coming together.’

Miss Sturgeon said parents would obviously have to take their children to school, but added: ‘Continue to work from home even if your child is back to school.

‘Continue to be as careful around other people outdoors, continue to abide when you are outdoors – it should be no more than one other household that you are interacting with. So the fact that kids are going back to school is not a sign that the rest of us can start to slip back to normal, and I know people get that and understand it.’

And the First Minister warned any signs that progress in suppressing coronavirus in Scotland had been interrupted by the return of schools would see a slower easing of measure in future.

She said: ‘In a couple of weeks’ time, if the school return has been just about getting kids back to school I’m really confident that it will not have interrupted our progress on the virus and we’ll be able to get more kids back to school. But if it does spark greater interaction more generally we might find that more difficult.’

Miss Sturgeon’s warning came yesterday after she was accused of patronising parents over fears the virus could spread not in schools, but outside them.

Margaret Wilson, chairman of the National Parent Forum of Scotland, said: ‘The issue is about human behaviour and how that might contribute to the spread. It isn’t just standing around the school gates, but there are risks if parents are going back to work, then that means that their child may go to a childminder after school and that all adds up.’

UsForThem Scotland organiser Jo Bisset said: ‘More parents will have work to be getting on with or a range of domestic tasks, which have been sidelined over the past two months.

‘In addition, it’s ridiculous to keep schools closed on the basis of how adults may or may not behave. We know that schools were safe all along, but still children’s education and social development have been compromised, in many cases beyond repair.’

‘It’s about people coming together’