Coronavirus: Minister advised of 'benefit' of face coverings on older children

Face coverings for older school children would be "of some benefit", Northern Ireland's chief scientific adviser has said.

Professor Ian Young said they could be worn in some settings in schools.

On Thursday, the education minister announced a move to bring children back five days a week from September.

But Peter Weir said while children should be encouraged to wear face masks on buses, they do not need to wear them in school.

He has said social distancing measures between pupils will be "relaxed", but whole class "bubbles" will limit mixing.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show, Prof Young said the Department of Education (DE) had been advised "there may be some benefit to the use of face coverings by older pupils where social distancing cannot be maintained, but that needs to be considered in the context of the activity that the children are doing".

Prof Young said that some exceptions would be laboratory work or PE.

However, speaking earlier Mr Weir told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that the wearing of face coverings in schools was "not implementable".

On Thursday, when asked about face coverings by the BBC, he said: "We are not recommending face masks are used; we don't believe that's appropriate for children.

"If you look at what has happened in other parts of the UK and the Republic of Ireland nobody is suggesting face masks within schools.

"We will, however, always be guided by the science and medicine so any issue will be under a level of review, but there will be a wide range of measures which have already been intimated to schools which will provide that level of protection from enhanced cleaning and hygiene to ensure that the level of mixing is kept to a minimum.

"School will be a very safe place to be - there is nowhere that is risk-free, but we will do everything we can to mitigate that risk."

Prof Young said his team had been looking at the experiences of other countries in terms of the impact of reopening schools on the rate of transmission.

"I think it is inevitable there will be some cases and outbreaks associated with schools," Prof Young said.

He added that the test, track and trace program would carefully monitor this.

By Robbie Meredith, BBC News NI Education Correspondent

Eighty thousand children rely on school transport every day - that is about a quarter of the school population.

A letter issued by the department on Thursday addressed transport, which is set to be a big issue.

It said there will be no requirement for children to follow public transport guidance for social distancing between pupils on dedicated home-to-school transport vehicles.

It is unclear if that includes Translink buses which would be operating normally.

There are dedicated school buses, but there are also normal buses - for example pupils getting on a bus in Lisburn into Belfast.

At the moment, those buses are operating at a lower capacity and passengers are wearing face masks.

Do children need to wear face coverings on a bus?

It doesn't sound like they will have to social distance.

Questions remain and once again we must wait on further guidance being issued on Wednesday or Thursday next week.

Northern Ireland's largest teaching union has said it will consider legal action if teachers are put in danger of contracting Covid-19 when they return to work.

Justin McCamphill from NASUWT said NI was "not ready" to send children back five days a week.

Mr McCamphill, whose union represents 11,000 teachers across NI, told the BBC's Nolan Show his union was "prepared to take action against schools that endanger our members".

"We have said that if the risk assessment shows that it is not safe, that schools should not proceed with the full reopening," he said.

"If they do, when the risk is there, and if our members are impacted by coronavirus we will be taking legal action against those individual schools," he added.

Meanwhile, the Ulster Teachers Union (UTU) said there were "big concerns" over how quickly schools could react to new guidance on a full-time return.

UTU General Secretary Jacquie White told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme schools had already started to plan for a mixture of pupils splitting their time between the classroom and studying at home.

Updated guidance on reopening is due be issued to schools next week by the DE.

Ms White said new guidance means many schools will now have to do "a quick turnaround" in adapting previous measures for a greater number of pupils.

"This announcement yesterday is promising further guidance which isn't going to come out until potentially the end of next week and teachers are back in school on 17 August.

"It's a very quick turnaround in trying to take plans that have already been put in place and adapt them for large numbers," Ms White said.

"There will be children in the school when we try and make these adjustments," she added.

Ms White questioned the logic behind Mr Weir's announcement, pointing out that it came on the same day the executive announced face coverings would become mandatory shops following a rise in the rate of transmission.

But Mr Weir said it was "the right approach" to prioritise education.

He said a wide range of protections would be put in place and that schools would still be required to keep most pupils in whole-class "bubbles" to limit mixing.

"Any action that is taken within Covid, any inaction, carries some level of risk," he said.

"We are not saying social distancing is abandoned.

"There would be whole class bubbles from years 1-10 and we will minimise movements of other classes from years 11-14."

The executive passed a proposal from the minister at its meeting on Thursday. It includes a return to school for those who attend special schools.

Pupils going into years seven, 12 and 14 are to return to school on 24 August with all other pupils returning from 31 August.