A TEACHING figurehead believes not all secondary school pupils will return to the classroom on March 8 due to the need for Covid testing.

Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “It’s not going to be life as normal.

“I think for primary children they will largely be able to go back into their schools and although it’s not going to feel absolutely normal, teachers will start to get them back into the rhythms and routines that will be, for the majority, exactly what they need.

“Secondaries are a different issue. MASH-style field hospitals essentially are having to be set up in order to do these lateral flow tests.

“We shouldn’t expect that on March 8 all pupils will be back in.

“It will be ‘from’ the eighth, because we have to get those tests under those young people’s belts first.”

Mr Barton said he did not want to get into an “arms race” over which jobs were more likely to lead to people dying.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Saturday he said further loosening of lockdown measures were not going to go ahead unless the first phase of reopening of schools was successful.

“What we don’t want to do is get into some kind of arms race as to whether my job is more likely to lead to me dying than you.

“That’s really not what I’m saying.

“I would just go back to my point, it is a national moment on which much depends.”

Mr Barton said he could not see a return of summer activities such as music festivals, “unless we get this first phase correct.”

But he believes vaccinating school staff against coronavirus would have given confidence to parents and young people about the reopening of schools.

When asked what he thought about the plans to prioritise vaccines by age rather than job, he said: “I am certainly not going to argue with an eminent scientist, but I think what I would say is a week on Monday we are at a moment, a national moment.

“Ten million children and young people are going to start the process of going back into their schools.

“The Government today is launching a campaign to try to reassure parents that they should be sending their children back.

“That tells you something about the level of anxiety there is.

“So, it’s understandable that what teachers will say is if you want that public confidence would it not make sense that you simply say to those people working in schools, they have been vaccinated as well.

“That, I think, would strengthen the Government’s position and it would be reassuring not just for the people working in schools but for parents and also young people.”