One thing we are all craving right now is certainty.

And Boris Johnson acknowledged as much on Thursday when he set out his plans for schools to reopen from 8 March.

“I know how parents and teachers need as much certainty as possible, including two weeks’ notice of the return of face-to-face teaching,” the prime minister told MPs.

But his announcement brings zero certainty to teachers or parents. And it could turn out to be the exact opposite of what either group “needs”.

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For teachers and heads, there’s the risk that schools invest energy and resources in order to hit a date that will inevitably be treated as a deadline by certain politicians, parents and media.

But a hard deadline it is not; Johnson couched his words extremely carefully, saying schools could “begin” reopening “from” 8 March.

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It’s probably safe to assume that not all year groups will make a full return to classrooms on 8 March. But that creates its own set of questions: which year groups will be returning? Which Covid safety measures will need to be followed? Will there be rotas? And what if staff feel that it’s too unsafe?

After all, at the start of this term, teachers at thousands of schools told their heads that they weren’t prepared to go into school for Covid safety reasons, and Thursday’s announcement offered little, if any, assurance of improvements to their working environments beyond the flimsy premise that infection rates will have fallen to safe levels.

There’s still no decision on whether teachers will be prioritised for vaccines, and we keep hearing the same circular argument that schools themselves are safe and only present risks because they “bring communities together”.

But however unlikely it is that schools will be throwing open their doors full-time to all pupils on 8 March, heads will have to prepare for any eventuality until the government fleshes out its plan.

For weary parents, yesterday’s announcement dangles a carrot of hope that may well be snatched away at the last minute. Parental morale - I speak from experience - is pretty low at the moment, and it seems almost cruel that so many parents will now be limping towards 8 March with raised expectations that the end is in sight.

The “first sign of normality beginning to return”, Mr Johnson said yesterday, “should be pupils going back to their classrooms”. Normality - and all pupils back in classrooms - is something teachers are desperate to see. But simply saying it’ll happen isn’t enough, and doing so without firm data or a detailed plan risks additional anxiety for all concerned.