Scottish Government announces return to full time education in August

  

I welcome the Scottish Government announcement today that, providing we stay on track with suppressing the virus, school children will return full time at the start of the new academic year.  This will be accompanied by £100m of funding to support a safe return as well as attainment.  Planning for blended learning was essential and I am glad that it will continue as a back-up, but today’s announcement is a moment of hope for children in East Lothian, and across Scotland.

Being together with friends in school is essential for the health and wellbeing of so many of our young people.  For many young people lockdown will have been especially hard on their mental health, so the prospect of getting back in to schools in August may come as a surprising relief to many!  This is also good news for parents across the county, who have been hard at work supporting their young folk through-out lockdown.  This has been a huge effort from parents, but as people begin to return to work this would become difficult to manage.

I want to say a personal thanks as well to the teachers and school support staff who are working incredibly hard to make sure that education continues as best it can in the context.  I welcome the extra £100 million in new funding to help the schools in getting back into education safely, and to support our young people to get back to some normality after the strains they have been under.

More information is available at the Scottish Government website here: https://www.gov.scot/news/return-to-full-time-schooling/