The Council has responded to the First Minister’s statement yesterday, regarding the full-time return of all children and young people to in-person, face-to-face, learning after the Easter Holidays.
For Shetland, this means a full-time return this coming Monday, 12 April 2021.
The strict two metre physical distancing requirement between secondary aged pupils in schools will be relaxed to accommodate their return. However, other COVID-19 mitigations and control measures such as ventilation and twice weekly lateral flow testing, which will now be available for all secondary aged pupils after the Easter holidays, as well as all school and early learning and childcare staff, will be increasingly important.
Children’s Services have already informed school and early learning and childcare staff of the First Minister’s announcement and will write to parents and carers today with further clarification and reassurance.
Director of Children’s Services, Helen Budge: “Now that we have the required confirmation of the full-time return from the Scottish Government, as well as published supplementary guidance, we will update our local COVID-19 Guidance to ensure that we have all the appropriate control measures and mitigations in place to support the safety of children, young people and staff. All our education settings are COVID-19 secure and the safety and wellbeing of staff and learners continues to be paramount to all our planning.”
Councillor George Smith, Chair of the Education and Families Committee: “I am delighted we have received confirmation that all children and young people will be able to safely return to their school after the Easter holidays. A huge amount of effort has gone into making remote learning work, but our secondary aged children and young people have missed the stability of attending school last term and interacting with their peers, their teachers and their support staff. It will be a significant step forward to see the full-time return after the Easter holidays.”