Parents will get two weeks notice before schools return in Scotland, says John Swinney

Education Secretary John Swinney said parents should get two weeks' notice before the return of schools in Scotland.

He also confirmed a government group is considering whether nurseries and pupils in primary 1-3 can come back to school first.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon this week confirmed that schools will stay closed for most pupils until the middle of February at least.

The policy has been in place since the beginning of the Christmas holidays and parents held out hope classroom learning could be back in early February.

However, Sturgeon said community transmission of the virus is too high to allow a return at that point.

At a media briefing, Swinney, who is also Deputy First Minister, said that a meeting of the Government’s Education Recovery Group met today to discuss the “early thinking” about schools reopening.

John Swinney has said that more restrictions may be required to stop the virus spreading (PA)

Propositions include face-face-face learning for priority groupings and a “phased” learning approach, unlike in August when all pupils returned in one go.

Swinney said it is “much more likely” they would bring back different cohorts of pupils.

He added: “Ideally I would like to give two weeks’ notice to everybody involved about the return to face to face learning, but obviously we may give shorter notice than that if we believe the opportunity exists.”