Covid-19: Pupils await transfer test news as schools set to shut

Announcements about this year's school transfer tests in Northern Ireland are expected on Tuesday, First Minister Arlene Foster has said.

She was speaking on Monday night after the Stormont executive announced an extended period of remote learning for school pupils in Northern Ireland.

The executive also plans to give its stay-at-home guidance legal force.

The first transfer test, used by many grammar schools to select pupils, is due to take place on Saturday.

Mrs Foster said she understood the two organisations which ran the tests would be making announcements later.

"We'll wait to hear what they have to say," she said.

"They do of course have to abide by public health advice but they are private organisations and they will make their own announcements."

Stormont ministers met on Monday night as other parts of the UK tightened their coronavirus restrictions.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said details of what they agreed would be formalised on Tuesday and that new travel restrictions would also be considered.

The health and education ministers will bring separate papers on the issues to the executive at the meeting, she added.

Ministers are then due to brief the assembly, which is being recalled on Wednesday.

Northern Ireland's Education Minister Peter Weir had previously announced a staggered return to school for pupils during the month of January.

In England, all schools and colleges will close to most pupils and switch to remote learning until the middle of February, and end-of-year exams will not take place this summer as normal.

Gemma Wild's 10-year-old daughter is due to sit the transfer test this Saturday in Foyle College.

"To be told now that it could be postponed or cancelled at this late stage is very concerning," she said.

"It's the unknown and the lack of clarity that is the most worrying."

Previously, parents and children attended a familiarisation day in the school, and were instructed about all safety and mitigation procedures in place.

The Londonderry mother said she was satisfied with the measures, and both she and her daughter wanted the examination to go ahead.

Mrs Wild has called on the executive to provide clarity to parents and children to give them both "peace of mind".

Mrs Foster said the new restrictions for Northern Ireland were unfortunate but necessary.

She said she believed the stay-at-home message would be in place "for the rest of January, probably into February".

"We will of course review it as we're legally bound to do every couple of weeks," she said.

She added that ministers would "much prefer" face-to-face education to continue but they had to "take into account the very serious situation that we find ourselves in".

The government in the Republic of Ireland is considering a proposal to close schools for the rest of January.

Northern Ireland is in the second week of a six-week lockdown in which non-essential retail is closed.

It is hoped the restrictions will reduce the transmission of coronavirus and relieve the pressure on the health service that had been building before Christmas.

GPs in Northern Ireland began to administer the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday.

Up to 11,000 people aged over 80 across Northern Ireland are set to receive the jab this week, with health officials aiming for everybody in that age group to be offered the vaccine by the end of this month.

It is the second Covid-19 vaccine to be used in Northern Ireland - the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is already being rolled out.

On Monday, the Department of Health reported that another 1,801 people had tested positive for the virus in the past day.

There were 12 more Covid-19 related deaths.

These latest figures from the Department of Health take the total number of deaths to 1,366, while 79,873 people have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic started.

More than 12,000 cases have been reported in the past seven days, more than double the week before.

The seven-day rate per 100,000 people is now 660 positive cases, compared with 200 per 100,000 two weeks ago.

In the Republic of Ireland on Monday, another 6,110 confirmed cases of Covid-19 were announced along with six more deaths linked to the virus.