Coronavirus: Belfast Royal Academy makes face masks mandatory

A Belfast grammar school is making it mandatory for pupils and staff to wear face coverings when they return.

Belfast Royal Academy (BRA) announced its plans in an email to parents.

It said that if a pupil arrived without a face mask, "they will not be permitted to enter the classroom".

On Monday it became compulsory to wear a mask in shops and other enclosed public spaces in NI but Education Minister Peter Weir said the executive was not recommending it for pupils.

However NI's Chief Scientific Adviser Prof Ian Young later said he believed it would be of benefit for older children.

Speaking about the decision, BRA principal Hilary Woods said it was about the "safe restart of the school".

"We want the full education of the pupils to be our priority and we don't want anything to jeopardise that," she said.

The principal said face coverings would only be worn by pupils and staff when in the school building.

It will not be a requirement for pupils to wear them "when exercising in the playground" or "when eating at break time and lunchtime".

Ms Woods said the decision, taken by the school's health and safety committee, was done so in line with the advice of Prof Young, the decision on face coverings in schools in the Republic of Ireland and Queen's University Belfast adopting a similar policy for their students and staff.

"We are a large school, we have over 1,400 pupils, 200 staff and due the nature of our site, it is impossible to maintain social distancing at the recommended one metre," she said.

"Therefore, in order to safeguard all members of the community and particularly our vulnerable pupils and members of staff we felt this was sensible advice."

The school will review all the measures taken including the wearing of face masks in a month's time.

The school said it planned to provide all pupils with a washable face covering in school colours, which should be marked with the pupil's initials.

Pupils are encouraged to purchase at least one additional mask "to facilitate frequent washing" and disposable masks are prohibited for environmental reasons.

NI Children's Commissioner Koulla Yiasouma said her preference would be for face masks to be encouraged, not mandatory.

"My big worry is that these young people are coming back to school for the first time in five months and with such a difficult rule to follow - albeit it is for the health of everybody - that it's immediately going to pitch young people against the school," she said.

"There's going to be disciplinary problems off of that."

However, one woman whose daughter goes to the school told The Nolan Show that she supported the decision as it would make pupils feel safer.

"At least they can sit beside each other with a face covering on and feel some sort of sense of community together," she said.

However, another parent who contacted the show said she was "furious" about the move and was considering not sending her daughter back.

Meanwhile, Slemish College in Ballymena has asked GCSE and A-level students to wear face coverings when picking up their results.

In a tweet it said: "Whilst we would strongly encourage all our students to wear face masks to school on a daily basis, this is not currently mandatory."

World Health Organization (WHO) advice says non-medical face coverings should be worn in public where social distancing is not possible.

Coronavirus is spread when droplets are sprayed into the air when infected people talk, cough or sneeze. Those droplets can then fall on surfaces.

The WHO says there is also emerging evidence of airborne transmission of the virus, with tiny particles hanging in aerosol form in the air.

Homemade cloth face-coverings can help reduce the spread from people who are contagious but have no symptoms or are yet to develop symptoms.

Taking a face covering on and off can also risk contamination, the WHO says.

There have been 48 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland according to the Department of Health's latest update on Tuesday.

The figures, which mostly record fatalities in a hospital setting, show the number of deaths remains at 557.

The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 is now 6,188.