Education guidance

The majority of young people will be able to return to schools, college and early years settings on Monday 8th March, as long as the positive strides made since we entered lockdown are maintained.

Secondary school students will be split and return over two days, with Years 7, 8 and 9 returning on Monday while Year 10 and upwards will return on Tuesday 9th March. This will allow younger students in secondary schools to familiarise themselves with the introduction of their new class bubbles, before older students return to school the following day.

All other students can return to educational settings on Monday 8th March.

Schools, colleges and early years providers (pre-schools, nurseries and child-minders) will remain closed to all students who do not meet the strengthened criteria outlined on this page.

The purpose of this is to prepare Public Health services for the roll-out of a new testing system which is being developed to support the reopening of education sites as safely as possible.

In the first island-wide lockdown, education settings remained open to all vulnerable children and the children of all essential and critical workers to allow them to work and not have to worry about childcare. However, given the current situation across the island and the importance of keeping the numbers of children and staff on any education site as low as possible, it is necessary to further filter those eligible to access on-site childcare.

Teams of officers from ESC and HSC have been hard at work to develop a system which will safely allow these targeted groups of vulnerable children and children of some essential workers to benefit from on-site care.

This plan involves a robust testing system, which will see any children or staff tested before entering a setting. They will then be continually tested on a rolling basis going forwards.

The strengthened criteria for qualifying for this childcare means that only children whose parents are both essential workers (unless in a single parent household), AND where all adults in the home need to leave the house to work will be allowed to attend.

Early Years Settings, Special Schools, Primary Schools and Secondary Schools (for pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 primarily) will be initially prioritised in this new programme of testing. The College of FE will continue to offer remote support as required for their learners. Children attending the island’s special schools and who may have complex medical needs will be supported through a bespoke programme of partnership support between HSC and ESC and will be invited into school on an individual basis.

The Committee for Education, Sport & Culture has published details of how the re-opening of education settings will align with the States' Exit from Lockdown framework. The Education Exit from Lockdown framework can be read in the file below.

Parents will have been contact by their school this week to advise that school transport will be extremely limited when schools reopen due to the need to maintain social distancing on public transport.  For that reason and unless it is absolutely essential for your child to catch the bus, please do everything possible to support them to travel to and from school via other methods, such as walking or cycling.

For any child who cannot walk, cycle or be dropped off at or near their school, parents have been sent an online form which they will need to complete by Tuesday 2nd March at 5pm in order to help us to understand the likely number of students who do need to use the bus service. Late applications will not secure a space for the week beginning Monday 8th March but will be carried forward, if spaces allow, for the week beginning 15th March.

As active travel is being encouraged and many schools will have extended drop off and pick up times from the 8th March, road users should take extra care around schools as there will be increased numbers of children and parents walking or cycling in the areas around schools for longer periods of the day. Temporary restrictions on speed and parking / drop-off areas are also being implemented around a number of school sites. Park and Stride locations are being used by a number of schools wherever possible and parents should utilise these locations.

Parents will receive a guidance document direct from their child’s school explaining how its distance learning programme will work, but a copy is also available from the downloads section on this page. 

The guidance aims to answers questions parents might have and explain how schools and the College of Further Education will best support students at this time. Staff have worked incredibly hard to produce a quality distance learning programme across more than 20 education settings.

It is important to note that all schools and the College of FE have been supplying parents and students with material this week and that any parents who have not yet been able to access this information should contact their child’s school for advice and support.

Please be reassured that there is no expectation that parents must suddenly take on the role of a teacher. While some young people may need additional support from parents, distance learning has been specifically designed to encourage independent learning as much as possible.

Distance learning aims to support parents by providing flexibility for students to complete the work around family commitments. We are very proud of the way that the entire education community across the island has pulled together so positively to respond so effectively to this rapid change in operations.