Scotland’s education secretary, John Swinney, has said “we should be confident” that schools will reopen as planned on 11 August.

Mr Swinney spoke at first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s Covid-19 briefing this afternoon, before a final decision on reopening schools is announced on Thursday.

The wellbeing of children is “critical” to the decision to reopen schools, Mr Swinney said, adding that parents should be reassured that local authorities and schools are working on plans to ensure the safety of children.

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Mr Swinney reiterated that £50 million had been made available to local authorities to recruit more teachers and staff, along with £20 million for other costs involved in the reopening schools, such as cleaning and transport.

Coronavirus: ‘Anxiety’ over reopening schools

Yesterday, Mr Swinney spoke of his “anxiety” over the planned reopening of the country’s schools in a little over two weeks’ time.

He told the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee: “I have some anxiety about the reopening of schools because of the degree of change this represents.”

That was echoed by Stephen McCabe, children and young people spokesperson for local authorities’ body Cosla, who said there was a “lot of anxiety out in the school communities”.

Mr McCabe also said: “We know that there are going to be incidents of Covid-19 in our schools.”

He stressed that education directors were “confident” schools would be ready for full-time learning in August, but that this would not be a return to the pre-Covid-19 definition of “normal” in schools.