Thousands of pupils return to NI schools

About 350,000 children and young people return to school and pre-school in Northern Ireland on Tuesday and Wednesday.

While many pupils had already started the new term in some schools, all return this week.

Department of Education guidance says schools can retain the use, or partial use, of bubbles.

However it will be up to individual schools to decide how much they continue to maintain the bubbles.

Schools have also been told that extra-curricular activities can resume, including music and singing.

Unless medically exempt, post-primary pupils are required to wear facemasks in class until at least 8 October.

The vast majority of children were taught remotely out of school for a number of months during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school year.

A recent wide-ranging report from the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People said that had a negative impact on children from lower-income backgrounds especially.

That report also said the closure of schools had "undoubtedly" exacerbated educational inequalities which were apparent before the pandemic.

Self-isolation guidance for pupils and staff has also changed for the new school year.

School pupils will not have to self-isolate after coming into contact with a coronavirus case if they have tested positive for the virus themselves within the previous 90 days.

If a school pupil is a close contact and has no symptoms, but has not had a positive test in the previous 90 days they are advised to self-isolate until they have taken a PCR test.

However if that test is negative they can return to school and do not have to self-isolate for 10 days.

It is hoped that the new self-isolation guidance will reduce the time some children have to spend out of school if they are close contacts of a positive case.

Similar changes have been made in England, Scotland and Wales.

However Kevin Donaghy, principal of St Ronan's Primary School in Newry, County Down, said that while he was excited about pupils returning, he was also nervous.

"The guidance is ambiguous in places and principals are being left to navigate this themselves," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"There is a lot of confusion over what it is that we are expected to do.

"The one thing all schools want, especially primary schools, is to keep their kids in school.

"And if the adults are off, what do you do with the children who are in?

"If you have half of your class off isolating and the other half in school, how can the teacher manage remote learning for one group and in-class learning for the other? It's a physical impossibility.

"As school leaders we're just being left to manage it as best we can," he added.

All 16 and 17-year-olds across the UK have been offered a first dose of vaccine against Covid-19.

A decision on whether a vaccine will be offered to all 12 to 15-year-olds in the UK is expected soon.

But any decision will depend on a recommendation from experts on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.