Rural Primary Schools

It would be a relatively easy operation to open some smaller village primary schools and nurseries where social distancing is not a real problem other than keeping children apart at break times. Scotland should start with this in areas where there are lower cases of COVID19 such as the Highlands &Islands, Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders. It would be easy to closely monitor these schools as a barometer for the way forward for larger schools. There was very little evidence of the virus affecting school pupils or teachers prior to lockdown so it is doubtful if this relaxation would result in a spike in cases and not difficult to reverse if there was .
With regard to social distancing at break times we live close to a hub for key workers’ children and it is very obvious that there is no way the children are being kept apart but yet again there seems to be little or no evidence of any cases appearing.

It would be easy to implement, easy to control, and reverse if there were any adverse reaction. There was no real evidence of transmission in schools prior to lockdown and with key workers children not observing social distancing religiously at the moment without any noticeable problems then this is an obvious way of starting the return to school in a staggered manner.