Schools: Social Distancing

(asked on 2nd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer on 28 May 2020 to Question 48615 on Schools: Coronavirus, whether the policy of social distancing of two metres will be maintained in schools when they reopen on 1 June 2020.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 10th June 2020

We know that, unlike older children and adults, early years and primary age children cannot be expected to remain 2 metres apart from each other and staff. In deciding to bring more children back to schools and nurseries, we are taking this into account. The Department has published guidance for schools on implementing protective measures in schools to help limit the spread of COVID-19:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings.

The approaches and actions in this guidance can be seen as a hierarchy of controls that, when implemented, creates an inherently safer system, where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced.

Secondary schools should aim to practice social distancing in line with the measures the Government is asking everyone to adopt in public and in workplaces, including keeping pupils 2 metres apart from each other where possible. This is more achievable in secondary schools than in primary schools, due to the age of the pupils. Guidance for secondary schools is also available on GOV.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preparing-for-the-wider-opening-of-schools-from-1-june/planning-guide-for-secondary-schools.

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