Students in their final year are likely to have spent their last day in school, education secretary John Swinney said this morning.

First minister Nicola Sturgeon had left open the possibility of schools returning before summer when she announced mass school closures yesterday.

But Mr Swinney, who is also her deputy, was asked this morning on BBC Radio Scotland if tomorrow is “likely to be the end of the academic year for some older pupils - is tomorrow likely to be their last day at school?”.

He replied: “I suspect it will be.”

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Mr Swinney also said that in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon he would outline support for parents who are “critical to dealing with the emergency situation”, so that they can get to hospital or other workplaces.

He will also give details of support for vulnerable children, including financial support “to make sure that children can get some nutritious food during the day”.

He offered reassurance that schools “know who the vulnerable families are”.

He stressed, however, that not all the detail of contingency arrangements for school closures would be worked out this week, as “it’ll take us some time to get all these arrangements worked out”.

But he added that the Scottish government was working with local authorities to ensure it happens “as quickly as possible”.

On exams - which Mr Swinney will give an update on in Parliament after 1.45pm - he said: “We could continue to run an exam diet, it may be possible with proper social distancing in schools but it’s logistically very different from the normal way of running exams where in some schools 250 children may be in the same large school assembly hall with two invigilators who, with no disrespect intended, are invariably over the age of 70.

“That traditional model would be very difficult for us to operate, we would have to separate the children up into numerous groups around the school, much smaller groups with many, many more invigilators.”

For live Twitter updates from John Swinney’s statement, follow @TesScotland, @Emma_Seith and @Henry_Hepburn from 1.45pm