Schools in Wales will be open full time for all pupils in September, Education Minister Kirsty Williams has announced.
She said that children would be grouped together in "contact groups" of around 30 pupils - the size of a primary school class.
Ms Williams said that only limited social distancing would be possible within the contact groups but that adults would be asked to continue to follow social distancing rules.
She said that mixing of contact groups would be unavoidable on transport, where specialist teaching was involved or where staffing constraints came into play.
Every school in Wales will be provided with a supply of home testing kits in case people at the school develop symptoms.
Schools are being given the option to open either on September 1 or September 14. The two-week window will give headteachers time to prepare or to have key exam year groups back two weeks earlier, Ms Williams said.
The Welsh Government is providing an extra £29m to schools this year to recruit 600 teachers and 300 teaching assistants to help pupils whose education has been hardest hit by the lockdown. More details here.
Ms Williams said that Wales' scientific advice body, the Technical Advisory Group, had recommended the return to school in September.
Its advice recommended the minister "plan to open in September with 100% of pupils physically present on school sites, subject to a continuing, steady decline in the presence of COVID-19 in the community".
She said that nurseries and other childcare settings would be supported to increase the size of their contact groups and move towards full operations. She said full guidance would follow for schools and nurseries would follow later.
Ms Williams said she was building on scientific advice and experience of schools re-opening in phases for the last weeks of this term.
She said: "I am able to announce that the autumn term in Wales will start on Tuesday, September 1st.
"All schools that can accommodate all pupils from the start of the term should do so.
"There will be a period of flexibility in recognition that schools may want to focus on priority year groups, such as those new to secondary schools, those sitting exams next summer or those in reception classes. This already happens in many schools, and we have been learning from practice elsewhere.
"It will also allow time, up to a fortnight, for any planning and reorganisation."
Follow live updates from Ms Williams' announcement on our dedicated coronavirus news blog.
And she added: "“Every decision we have made has been backed by the latest available scientific and medical guidance. Thanks to Wales’s cautious and careful approach, Covid’s presence in our communities is declining. In the expectation that this will continue, the advice to me is that schools can plan to open in September, with all pupils present.”
Schools re-opened on June 29 for the last few weeks of the summer term. Teaching unions, including the National Education Union Cymru and the NASUWT Cymru said they would have preferred a September re-opening. Unison, which represents teaching assistants and other staff, had warned it was not safe to return in June.
Last weekend, doctors and a parent campaign group called for full re-opening of schools and yesterday the Welsh Government announced an extra £29m to help recruit more school staff in light of the coronavirus.
Unions welcomed the plans for a full return.
Etienne Hughes of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Cymru said the union would work "with our members to do everything possible to ensure that parents, pupils, and staff, can all have confidence that a full return is safe".
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said it was a "significant moment" and that "no-one should underestimate the scale of the task involved", however he said the union shares the "Welsh government’s ambition to get all pupils back to school in September".
Unison, which represents school support staff, said the health of teaching assistants, cooks, cleaners and teaching assistants should not be overlooked, saying there was "a huge amount of hard work ahead to ensure schools are safe" but that the announcement gave pupils and schools "much needed certainty".
Dilwyn Roberts-Young, UCAC General Secretary, said that teachers had worked hard to create a safe environment.
He said: “With the statement from the Education Minister we can now look forward to welcoming pupils back to our schools in September and we await the publication of the guidelines for reopening.
"However, with the guidance being published so late in the day, there will need to be some forbearance in relation to preparation for the reopening during the first few weeks of the autumn term."
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