Scottish government advisers have recommended that there should be three weeks between each phase of the return to school, in order to fully assess the impact of increased face-to-face teaching on transmission of Covid.

If ministers follows their guidance, most pupils will not begin to return to school until the week beginning Monday 15 March, at the earliest. First minister Nicola Sturgeon revealed on Tuesday that the first phase of the return was due to start on Monday 22 February.

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The advice on the phased return to school from the Coronavirus (Covid-19): Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children’s Issues was published yesterday.

The group - which includes among its members scientific and public health experts, clinicians and academics, as well as experts in education - gave the green light for the staged return to in-person teaching from 22 February but said that the impact of the move would have to be monitored, and recommended “a period of three weeks between each phase”.

It said: “Any relaxation of measures should be undertaken in a staged/progressive way, enabling time for the education system to plan for each step change and to monitor its impacts, and should be cognisant of the need for stability and sustainability of the approach.

“Decisions on the nature and timing of each new phase of return to in-person learning will depend on the balance of harms, ongoing assessment of the risks associated with the new variant, and consideration of the benefits and risks to, and needs of, different groups of children and young people to return. However, the cycle of Covid-19 infection and hospitalisation necessitates a period of three weeks between each phase of return to in-person learning, in order to assess the impact fully.”

First minister Nicola Sturgeon announced on Tuesday that the Scottish government was aiming to get pupils back to face-to-face learning - beyond the small numbers of vulnerable pupils and children of key workers already in schools - in the week beginning Monday 22 February, starting with the full-time return of preschool children, followed by P1-3.

She said the plan was for senior secondary students to also return on a part-time basis in order to finish “practical work that is necessary for the completion of national qualification courses”.

She said the decisions would be confirmed in two weeks at which point she hoped to “set out the next phase of the gradual return to school”.

However, if the government follows its own advisers’ guidance, the next phase will not start until three weeks after the initial phase is under way, meaning the earliest other pupils can begin returning is the week beginning Monday 15 March.

Speaking at yesterday’s Downing Street briefing, the prime minister Boris Johnson said he planned to stick to his plan to reopen schools more widely from 8 March.

He said: “What we don’t want to do, now that we are making progress with the vaccine rollout and we have got a timetable for the way ahead, we don’t want to be forced into reverse.”

“We think this is the prudent and cautious approach. I think it is much better to stick to that.”