English children aged 5 to 11 will return to school on Monday morning March 8 -

Maureen McLean / Shutterstock / SIPA

This Monday morning, the little English children aged 5 to 11 are heading back to school.

They will be followed in a more staggered manner the following week by middle and high school students.

This is the first crucial step in the British government's plan to gradually pull the country out of a third lockdown introduced in January to fight the coronavirus epidemic.

Apart from the children of key workers, all the students did only one day of school in 2021, before the government decreed a third confinement, harder than the previous one, to curb the spread of a new, more contagious variant appeared in Kent.

"A big step on our roadmap"

Faced with the drop in contaminations and hospitalizations, Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave the green light at the end of February for the reopening of schools, the first step in a broad plan to gradually get the country out of devastating restrictions for the economy.

"I think we are ready, the (children) want to go back, they feel the need," he said on Sunday during a visit to a London vaccination center, welcoming "a big step on our sheet road "to get out of confinement which," we hope, is a road map to freedom ".

Thanks to its large vaccination campaign - 22 million first doses injected - the government indicated that it would be possible from March 29 to meet six people outside.

The reopening of pubs, restaurants and non-essential stores is scheduled to take place on April 12.

Distance school was "a real ordeal"

According to the chief inspector of English schools, distance schooling has been "a real ordeal" for many children.

Stranded at home, they endured "boredom, loneliness, misery and anxiety," Amanda Spielman told Sky News, worrying about an increase in self-harm and eating disorders.

On the parents' side, the return to school also sign "the greatest relief in the world," said Lisa Tyler, happy to be able to drop off her six and ten-year-old daughters.

Like many parents, for two months she had to juggle between the education of her toddlers and her own work.

“I can't wait for them to go back to school.

I tried to manage it, but it was a nightmare ”, she estimates, explaining having to“ sit all the time ”with the youngest, less autonomous, to explain things to him under penalty of it. "Fall behind".

Schools already reopened in Scotland

The reopening of schools on Monday only concerns those in England, each British province deconfining at its own pace.

Northern Irish children aged 4 to 8 will also return to class on Monday, followed on March 22 by pupils aged 13 to 18, then the others in April.

Schools in Scotland reopened last month for children aged 4 to 7, with others due to partially return from March 15.

A similar timetable has been adopted in Wales, which favors pupils taking exams this year.

Twice a week screening tests

Country in Europe most bereaved by the pandemic with more than 124,000 dead, the United Kingdom is cautious in its deconfinement, in order not to have to backtrack.

To return to class, all students will now have to undergo twice a week screening tests, and the oldest will have to wear a mask in class until April.

"We are adding all these layers of protection, not just the mask, but also the tests, to support and help schools," Education Minister Gavin Williamson told Sky News Sunday morning.

Worried parents

A move that worries parents, after statistician Sheila Bird, of the Royal Statistical Society, warned the BBC on Saturday of the "high probability" of getting a false positive, which would force entire families to isolate themselves for nothing.

"We need to find the right balance and gradually open up to the rhythm of vaccinations to keep the rate of reproduction of the virus under control," infectious disease expert Mike Tildesley told Times Radio on Sunday.

“Things are going in the right direction,” he said, “but the next few weeks are going to be crucial in monitoring what happens when schools reopen”.

World

Coronavirus: UK hits target of vaccinating around 15 million vulnerable people

World

Coronavirus in UK: Person arrived with Brazilian variant actively sought

  • Covid 19

  • Confinement

  • Coronavirus

  • Child

  • United Kingdom

  • Primary school

  • Health

  • England