Introduction
To reduce the spread of COVID-19, a UK ‘lockdown’ was announced on 23 March 2020 and school campuses, as in most countries worldwide,1 were closed to all but vulnerable or priority students. Prior to the summer holidays some year groups, including year 10, returned to school for face-to-face teaching. In July, the government announced all school campuses would fully reopen in September.
Evidence for school closures reducing infection spread is equivocal.2 Those in favour of school campuses reopening to all pointed to the impact on learning,3 particularly for lower socioeconomic groups,4 widening inequalities and consequences for students’ physical and mental health.1 5–10 Remote learning also affected staff well-being and mental health.11 However, schools reopening carried risks modelling suggested increased COVID-19 infection would occur if schools reopened full time (combined with easing of other restrictions and without scaled up school testing).12
Government guidance set out a range of school-based protective measures to reduce COVID-19 outbreaks, including hand hygiene, cleaning, reporting symptoms and social distancing. Further, a UK modelling study recommended existing testing should be scaled up.12 13
Understanding the views and concerns of school staff, parents and students about the implementation of this guidance is key to ensuring compliance, avoiding unintended harms13 and supporting schools to reduce risks. This is especially important in secondary schools as the risk of transmission in teenagers is higher than young children, COVID-19 measures particularly impact examination years, and secondary school students are more concerned than primary about COVID-19.14 This qualitative study undertaken in secondary schools aimed to rapidly explore student, parent/carer and school staff attitudes towards school COVID-19 mitigation measures, views on managing COVID-19 infections in schools and opinions about student groups who may be particularly affected by these measures.