All schools in Kent closed their doors last month as the country was put into lockdown over coronavirus.

At fist, a number of schools in the county took action to stop the deadly virus sweeping the country but soon enough everywhere shut the doors.

Health experts believe children are mostly unaffected by COVID-19 but those who work in schools were considered in danger.

Bosses were also worried about parents congregating at the drop off and pick up their children.

And children could unknowingly pass the disease to one another before taking it home.

Closing the schools also had a big psychological effect on the country - emphasising the severity of the lockdown measures, reports the Mirror.

But keeping children out of the classroom is having a huge effect on the economy as millions of parents have been taken out of the workplace.

And the question of when and how they can open is one that will not go away.

When will schools reopen?

How different will schools look when they reopen?

There has not yet been a decision - but most agree that it can't be before the end of May.

Most in the sector agree that what is best is for pupils to be in school - but only when it’s safe for them to do so.

Some in the sector are concerned that even speculating about their reopening could be a bad thing.

The National Education Union have warned that “loose talks costs lives”.

General Secretary Dr Mary Bousted said that the speculation “deeply concerns our members, who would be at immediate risk if Government was too hasty in relaxing lockdown measures.”

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The earliest "realistic" point at which schools in England could start re-opening would be 1 June, head teachers' leader Geoff Barton has said.

"We cannot see any realistic way that schools could be re-opened to more pupils before the second half of the summer term," said the ASCL leader.

But even the 1 June date is viewed as optimistic because, in order to meet that target,

Mr Barton says "planning would need to begin very soon".

Will they be safe?

When will schools reopen?

This is the overriding concern of everyone involved in the decision from government to unions to school leaders and parents.

Before schools were shut last month, many were running with a skeleton staff with teachers and others off sick.

While many parents kept children at home believing it was the safety place for them to be.

More than 190,000 people have now signed a petition set up by the National Education Union which asks the government not to reopen them before it's safe and to commit to testing and tracing to help that.

The new general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) Dr Patrick Roach, warned that staff concerns must be "fully addressed" before teachers would be willing to come back.

In a letter to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson earlier this week, Dr Roach demanded personal protective equipment (PPE) for all staff, anti-viral cleaning measures and guidelines on how social distancing would be enforced in schools.

Will they look different when they return?

All schools are set to close in the UK


On Thursday Nicola Sturgeon talked about “rearranging classrooms” so that the 2m distancing could be observed.

The First Minister said alternating weeks for pupils was the type of option her government is considering whenever lockdown is eased.

She also raised the prospect of redesigning classrooms as a way of enforcing social distancing.

She has consistently been more open with the public about measures to deal with coronavirus suggesting the Westminster government will be having similar discussions.

Sturgeon said of schools: “I think some countries have perhaps had some children in school go back.

“There has been some talk, and it is certainly an option that has to be considered, although we might not do it, some kids go one week, other kids go the next week, so that there’s the ability to have smaller classes.

“These are the kind of options we are dealing with.”

The Welsh First Minister has also stipulated that the 2m rule must be observed in schools currently and in the future.

For many schools that may inevitably mean a new layout for classroom and for teachers to handle fewer pupils at a time.

The details have not yet been decided but they are part of the discussion which will have to happen before schools return.

Will teachers and other staff wear PPE?

A tester wearing personal protective equipment at a coronavirus testing site near Manchester Airport
A tester wearing personal protective equipment

They want to - or certainly their unions want them to have that option.

The unions representing support staff have banded together to demand their members have the right equipment before they return to work.

The GMB, Unison and Unite have issued a joint statement asking the government to engage with them ahead of any return to school. They say their members need proper equipment and that staff are currently very worried.

At the moment PPE provision is patchy.

One school told the Mirror they have equipment to be worn when dealing with an ill child but not for other situations.

But with many children potentially posing as carriers rather than suffering from the virus there are concerns that staff could be more at risk than the children they care for.

Andy Prendergast, Senior Organiser for the GMB, told the Mirror: “There’s a huge number of hurdles we need to get over before schools can be open across the board. There’s the problems with PPE which are problems everywhere and at the moment we can’t get enough into hospitals and care homes so the idea that there’s tonnes of it waiting for schools is quite simply not the case.

“The relatively small number of schools that are open are struggling to get PPE, but the idea that we can open all the schools in the country and have them work safely just doesn’t work.

“One of the big issues that they’ve got is lack of hand sanitiser and some of the advice being given is that people can go and wash their hands. The obvious problem with that is if you’re in a class with a load of kids and you have to go and wash your hands. That involves you having to go somewhere, having to touch numerous doors, wash your hands, go all the way back and what do the kids do in the meantime?

“What we’re saying very clearly is we need to have adequate risk assessments and there needs to be adequate stocks of PPE to protect the members as we move forward on that.

“While there are national shortages of PPE we can’t see that happening any time soon but obviously we want to get people back to usual but to do that we need to be satisfied that members - and also the kids and their families - are going to be protected.”

“We’ve had at least one member who works in a school who has died of covid-19 and, while we can’t say for absolute certain how they got the virus, we are extremely concerned that that may have been spread through the school.

"At the moment the they’re not being forced back to work and the government lockdown continues for the next few weeks but the concern is what happens after that."

Will teachers be tested?

If they show symptoms anyone who works in a school will be eligible for a test as a "key worker" as part of the announcement by Health Secretary Matt Hancock of the extension of the government's testing programme.

They need to sign up or be referred by their manager on gov.uk

The newly-unveiled system has suffered teething problems as the government struggled to cope with demand.

Some 5,000 of the test at home kits were ordered within two minutes of an online portal opening for 10million key workers and their families.

A further 15,000 testing slots at drive-through testing sites were taken on Friday - forcing the government to close the entire self-testing website for the day.

But it is expected to be back up and running from 8am on Saturday.

What is happening in other countries?

Scandinavian countries have been some of the more relaxed over fears that schools might be clusters of transmission.

Norway reopened kindergartens this week.

Iceland and Sweden never closed their primary schools — judging that the benefits outweighed the risks.

Johan Carlson, director of Sweden’s public health agency, has called evidence for school closures “very vague”.

Dorte Lange, vice-president of the Danish Association of Teachers, said: “These first few days have been very well orchestrated by headmasters and teachers, and parents are feeling quite good about it.”

Today Austria has decided that schools will return on May 18, with classes split in two groups that will each attend lessons half the week to ensure their desks are far enough apart.

Most classes will be split into two groups, with one attending school Monday to Wednesday and the other Thursday to Friday, then swapping the following week.