Welsh schools closed until half term unless cases fall

As reported by BBC news, schools and colleges in Wales will stay closed to most pupils until the February half term unless there is a ‘significant’ fall in COVID cases

First minister Mark Drakeford also confirmed current lockdown restrictions would be extended and “strengthened”. This means non-essential retail, hospitality venues, licensed premises and leisure facilities remain closed and showrooms must now shut as well. Drakeford said: “The pandemic has reached a significant point.”

He told BBC Radio Wales that the announcement was the “best certainty” he could offer parents, pupils and teachers, “in a world which is highly uncertain and where things change almost every single day”. A return to face-to-face learning at some Welsh universities has also been postponed, while internal GCSE, A-level and AS-level assessments have been cancelled.

The announcement follows a similar move in England, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson has already said schools would not open before half term. Wales has been in an alert level four lockdown since 20 December in an attempt to reduce the transmission of coronavirus. On Thursday, 63 further deaths from coronavirus were reported by Public Health Wales.

Schools and colleges had already been told they would have to teach online until 18 January at the earliest, however this will now continue if cases of the virus do not fall “materially” before the next review date on 29 January.

If cases do not drop, that would mean schools would reopen on 22 February at the earliest, and internal exams have also been cancelled.

But teaching unions have warned that more uniformed lateral flow testing needs to be in place and teachers must be vaccinated before talks on how to reopen schools can begin.

Cardiff University has also confirmed that a phased return to in-person learning has been cancelled, with learning continuing online for most students until 22 February.

Students currently have to have had two lateral flow tests confirming they are negative for COVID-19 before they return to Welsh campuses – and face to face teaching is only resuming for medical students and those who have practical parts of their courses on campus.

Drakeford said: “Universities have worked hard to make sure that when students do return it is done in a careful and controlled way, with the safety of those young people and their communities at the forefront of their planning.”