The announcement that schools in England can lift restrictions from 19 July has left teachers, students and parents asking questions about how exactly this will work in practice.

Here are the most pressing questions about the guidance for step 4 of the Covid recovery roadmap that the education sector still needs the answers to:

Covid: How will the easing of restrictions affect schools?

1. Will we still need lateral flow tests in September?

All secondary and college students must have two lateral flow tests on site when term begins in September.

In order for students to have minimal disruption to lessons, schools can begin their testing three days before the term begins. The guidance says:

“As pupils will potentially mix with lots of other people during the summer holidays, all secondary school pupils should receive 2 on-site lateral flow device tests, 3 to 5 days apart, on their return in the autumn term.”

The question here is, will students who are self-isolating due to holidays abroad be permitted to come to school to perform a lateral flow test?

Currently, leaving home to be tested is permitted while you’re self-isolating, but is this type of test included in the exemption? If so, how should schools treat these students who are surely at higher risk of being infected due to having been out of the country recently?

2. What does it mean for practical subjects?

The guidance says social distancing can end, but how much social distancing does it mean? Guidance for singing indoors wasn’t included on the education guidance, nor was it included in the general guidance for the members of the public.

Does this mean that schools can return to whole-school singing practice? Music teachers would like to assume so, but hopefully more detailed guidance will confirm this.

3. How will test and trace work?

Although test and trace is no longer going to be the responsibility of headteachers, what will that look like in practice? The guidance says:

“From step 4, close contacts will be identified via NHS Test and Trace and education settings will no longer be expected to undertake contact tracing.”

Will heads be expected to supply year group lists and contact details for students? Or will students be expected to give full names of their close contacts?

Clearly this will be impractical for younger children who aren’t always fully confident of their own full name, let alone the names of those they sat next to at lunch on Wednesday last week.

4. How many positive cases will be too many?

When we’re told to prepare for masks, social distancing and staggered starts to return in the event of Covid cases rising. But how many cases will warrant this response? And what should the school introduce first? 

The guidance makes reference to “outbreak management plans”. But what exactly do these plans need to look like? It would be really helpful to know.

See Tes’ article ”What to put in your ‘outbreak management plan’” to find out what existing guidance says on this.