91Èȱ¬

Lots of pupils in the UK have been learning remotely since Christmas. So, when will schools open up again for everyone?

Education is one of the areas where each of the UK's four nations can do what best suits their own country.

That means that schools in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can open at different times, depending on the different lockdowns in each country.

Schools across the UK will open in a staggered way, rather than all pupils starting back at the same time.

Some experts and teaching unions have also called for a rota system where pupils have a mixture of time in school and remote learning.

What is the situation across the nations? We've got it covered below.

In England, on 22 February, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce a plan for the easing of lockdown.

He's expected to say that schools will re-open on 8 March.

Children aged between three and seven - those in the foundation phase - are returning to school from Monday 22 February.

Primary schools for children aged eight and over could reopen fully in Wales by 15 March - if covid cases in the country continue to fall.

Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford announced his plans for easing Wales out of lockdown and getting more children back to school.

He hopes this will be the last three weeks of the "stay-at-home" rules but any lockdown change depends on case rates falling.

Some year groups in Scotland can start to return to classrooms from Monday 22 February.

This includes those at pre-school and pupils aged four to seven at primary schools and some secondary school pupils.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that a "phased and gradual return" of pupils would go ahead as planned.

All children in P1 to P3, and those at pre-school, will return to face-to-face learning from Monday, while other age groups will continue to learn from home (apart from some secondary pupils who need to complete coursework).

She said "children's education and well-being is a priority" and that she is "very keen" to begin a gradual return of younger pupils to schools.

Schools in Scotland will reopen gradually and the hope is to allow pupils from all years to return in March. Ms Sturgeon will confirm this in a review in two weeks.

In Northern Ireland, pre-school, nursery and pupils in primaries one to three will return to classrooms on 8 March.

They will then resume remote learning on 22 March to allow the return of pupils in years 12 to 14 until the start of the Easter holidays.

Students doing qualifications like GCSEs, AS, A-levels (in years 12 to 14) and other vocational qualifications like BTEC will return to face-to-face teaching from 22 March.

But pupils in years 4 to 7 in primary and years 8 to 11 in post-primary will not be back in school until after the Easter break at the earliest.

The lockdown in Northern Ireland has been extended to 1 April.