NICOLA Sturgeon has announced a phased return to the classroom for some of Scotland’s school kids. 

Pupils in P1, P2 and P3 will - if it is safe - be able to return full-time from February 22.

Senior pupils who need time for “practical work that is necessary for the completion of national qualification courses” will be able to return part-time. 

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon Covid lockdown update: Restrictions to remain until March

There will also be “small increases in existing provision for children and young people with significant additional support needs where there is a clear and demonstrable necessity.”

Early learning and childcare for all children below school age will also return full-time. 

The First Minister said the government would confirm these decisions in two weeks’ time and would then “set out the next phase of the gradual return to school and a timescale for the return of in-person learning in colleges and universities.”

Sturgeon said the decisions were “subject to continued progress in suppressing the virus and will be subject to final confirmation in two weeks’ time.”

She said that initially there would be “no more than around 5 - 8% of a secondary school roll physically present at any one time for these purposes.”

Sturgeon also announced a massive expansion of testing, with secondary pupils all those who work in schools, and in early learning and childcare settings attached to schools, to be offered at-home testing twice a week. 

The First Minister told MSPs there was little “room for manoeuvre” and that a return to school would need to likely mean “adults living with restrictions for longer.”

She told Holyrood: “It is a statement of the obvious that all of us want to see children and young people back in full time, face to face education as soon as possible.

“The closure of school premises to most pupils right now is necessary - unfortunately - in the interests of protecting the country overall from the harm of this virus.

“But evidence of the wider health, developmental and social harms being experienced by children and young people concern all of us - and they do so more with every day that passes.

“I am also acutely aware of the pressure school closures is putting on working parents and on family life more generally.

“Now, I have to be candid that our room for manoeuvre, given thecurrent state of the pandemic, is limited.

"But I want to be equally candid about the government’s determination to use every inch of headroom we have to get children back to school.”

The EIS, Scotland's largest teaching union, were worried. They said virus levels would need to fall "substantially" before any phased return.

General Secretary Larry Flanagan said, “Clearly, any school return remains contingent upon continued progress on community suppression of the virus and that is not a given so we need to see infection levels coming down substantially before the return date can be confirmed.”

He added: “Whilst a phased return is a more cautious approach, we are surprised that the First Minister did not discuss the need for physical distancing amongst P1-P3 pupils, given that she clearly stated the new variant impacts on all age groups, whereas previously younger children seemed to be less directly involved in transmission than adults.

"The EIS believes that a blended learning model, i.e. implementing physical distancing, would be a safer strategy to deploy and we would need to see strong scientific evidence to justify the Government’s approach. Frankly, in the absence of such evidence this model creates unnecessary risk for staff and pupils.”

Scottish Labour interim leader Jackie Baillie said she was still concerned about the impact of having schools closed to most youngsters.

She said: “Almost a year into this pandemic we are all too aware of the negative impact lockdown and school closures are having on children and young people.”

Baillie said research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies found “by the time the pandemic is over most children will have missed more than half a year of normal in person schooling” – and that this could cost them as much as £40,000 in lost earnings over their lifetimes.

“The effect of Covid on lost learning could translate into lower incomes and higher inequality,” she warned.