Phased return of schools will go ahead

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Photo: BBC Scotland. 

Early learning and P1-3 pupils will return to school from Tuesday 23rd February, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed.

Some senior pupils will be allowed to return for practical purposes too.

The Scottish government had signalled their intention to allow those groups back into school earlier this month.

She said that case numbers were sufficiently low enough to let some pupils return.

But Ms Sturgeon said that decision could mean the rest of the population would have to live under restrictions for longer.

The government will publish a roadmap out of lockdown next week, but the First Minister said she wanted the return to normality to be “driven much more by data than dates”.

“The exit from lockdown is likely to be even more cautious than it was before,” she said.

It would be the beginning of March at the earliest before the country was able to resume some form of normality, she said, and possibly could be even longer.