Social distancing of 1m 'safe and appropriate' for school pupils, Northern Ireland Executive agrees
Social distancing of 1m as opposed to 2m is"safe and appropriate" for children and young people at school, the Northern Ireland Executive has agreed.That is according to guidance being sent by Education Minister Peter Weir to school principals.The guidance outlined how schools may operate when they fully reopen and is due to be published on Friday.
"Using 'protective bubbles' has been supported by the Department of Health and PHA, and flexing their use to 1m will allow full classes to attend. Mr Weir added that the guidance"will be subject to ongoing review" depending on scientific and medical advice over Covid-19. He added:"I'm quite happy to assist a programme whereby we will get the children back into school as quickly as possible, quite happy to talk about bringing children back in August, quite happy to have all of these conversations - but it's impossible to have conversations where advice is issued which is totally impossible to implement."
A draft plan of the new guidance previously suggested a range of measures for the full reopening of schools, including that the beginning and end of school days could be staggered to avoid all children arriving and leaving at once.
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