1. Statement by the First Minister: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:26 pm on 5 August 2020.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 2:26, 5 August 2020

I fully support the Government's position of prioritising the return to school of all, hopefully, pupils for the start of the school year next month. Linked to the important change to the regulations last Friday that children up to the age of 11 no longer need to observe social distancing, either with each other or with adults, I'm keen to understand how that will facilitate the reopening of all primary schools for all pupils full time, and also whether that will then enable breakfast clubs and after school wraparound services to operate normally as well, because I'm sure that parents who will otherwise need to make other arrangements for childcare will find that very helpful.

Assuming that the information from Denmark and elsewhere stands up to scrutiny and that primary school children are not a source of spreading the coronavirus, that obviously enables us to focus more on the secondary schools, where social distancing is required, and I wondered how the Government is supporting secondary schools to ensure the maximum number of pupils can attend most of the time.

And lastly, I just—