Nicola Sturgeon confirms that Scottish schools will reopen on MONDAY

Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that Scottish schoolchildren will return to class from next Monday, a full fortnight before their English counterparts.

The First Minister said that a phased reopening of classrooms will begin from February 22 – but dashed the hopes of Scots dreaming of a foreign summer holiday this year.

Under the plans announced at the start of February and confirmed at Holyrood this afternoon, pupils in Primary 1 to Primary 3 would also be allowed back into school first, as would those in the senior phase of secondary school.

All children under school age in early learning and childcare would also return.

The move heaps pressure on Boris Johnson to confirm classes in England will begin again on March 8. 

He is widely expected to confirm this when he unveils a ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown next Monday, but questions remain over how many children will immediately return.

Ms Sturgeon said that after Monday, further returns to school would not happen before March 15, given the need to properly assess the ramifications of the return in phase one.

The First Minister said: ‘I want to be clear, though, that the need to properly assess the impact of this limited reopening means we think it unlikely, at this stage, that there will be any further return to school before 15 March.

‘As we consider these issues, we are of course doing everything we can to ensure that schools are as safe as possible for children, and for the education workforce.’

Senior phase pupils, teachers and school staff will be given lateral flow testing twice a week from next week.

The Scottish Government hopes to produce a full roadmap out of lockdown next week, Ms Sturgeon added.

But as a payoff for the schools going back, she warned today that foreign holidays are probably ruled out this year. 

‘We are very likely to advise against booking Easter holidays, either overseas or within Scotland as it is highly unlikely that we will have been able to fully open hotels or self-catering accommodation by then,’ she told MSPs.

‘However for the summer, while it is still highly unlikely that overseas holidays will be possibly or advisable, staycations might be – but this will depend on the data nearer the time.’ 

Returning to ‘100 per cent normality’ will likely not be possible in the near future in Scotland, Ms Sturgeon said.

The First Minister told MSPs that some restrictions may have to remain in place, and ‘trade offs’ will have to be made to ease some restrictions, such as the return of schools.

Ms Sturgeon said: ‘I know this is difficult given how desperate we all are to get back to something close to normal, but if we open up too quickly to meet arbitrary dates, we risk setting progress back.

‘Indeed, because of the new, more infectious variant, our exit from lockdown is likely to be even more cautious than it was last summer.

‘And secondly, probably for a while yet, 100 per cent normality is unlikely to be possible.

‘So in a world where we can’t do everything immediately, we will need to decide what matters most.’

The First Minister told MSPs in the Scottish Parliament that lockdown ‘has been working’ with a slowing down of the virus.

She said, though, the situation is still very fragile, adding ‘even a slight easing of restrictions could cause cases to start rising rapidly again’.

She said there would be no ‘immediate changes to the current lockdown restrictions’ and the ‘core stay at home requirement will remain in place until at least the beginning of March – and possibly for a further period beyond that’.

Schoolchildren in Wales are also expected to return from February 22. 

The seven-day incidence rate in Wales has fallen to below 100 cases per 100,000 people for the first time in ‘many, many months’, while the test positivity rate is now under 10 per cent.

Health minister Vaughan Gething said yesterday that that the ‘majority of headroom’ created by the improved situation in Wales would be used to return children aged seven and under to face-to-face teaching from February 22.

However, schools in Northern Ireland are expected to remain closed until March 8 in line with England. 

It came as another Covid variant that could dodge vaccine-triggered immunity has been identified in the UK.

Scientists say the strain — called B.1.525 — has been spotted 33 times already but experts say this could be an underestimate. MailOnline understands health chiefs will today officially list it as a variant under investigation while further tests are carried out. It will not be instantly listed as a strain of concern, like the South African and Kent viruses.

It carries the E484K mutation found on both the South African and Brazilian variants, which make the current crop of jabs slightly less effective.

The variant also has the Q677H mutation on its crucial spike protein, prompting warnings from scientists that this could make it even more resistant to vaccines. And it shares similarities with the Kent strain, which studies show is up to 70 per cent more infectious and deadlier.

The B.1.525 variant was first detected in Britain in mid-December — but this doesn’t mean it evolved here. The UK does far more sequencing than other countries. It has already spread to 11 countries including the US, Canada and Denmark, which are not on the UK’s ‘red list’.

It has been linked to travel to Nigeria, where 12 out of 51 virus samples analysed — or 24 per cent — were the new variant. For comparison, the UK has only found it in 33 of 70,000 genomes sequenced, or less than 0.4 per cent.

The discovery will likely spark fears Britain’s lockdown restrictions may be delayed. Boris Johnson — who is set to unveil his ‘roadmap’ back to freedom on Monday — last week refused to rule out extending measures if the South African virus kept on spreading. His comments came after an alarming study claimed Oxford University’s vaccine may not stop people falling ill with the mutant strain.