(Adds details, quotes)
LONDON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Pupils in Scotland will begin
returning to schools from Monday, Scottish First Minister Nicola
Sturgeon said, but the move would mean wider COVID-19 lockdown
restrictions may have to stay in place longer.
Sturgeon announced that a phased return would go ahead as
previously planned with some age groups allowed to return next
week, and others dependent on the success of that move and data
on overall infection rates.
"We are very deliberately choosing to use the very limited
headroom we have right now to get at least some children back to
school, because children's education and wellbeing is such an
overriding priority," she told the Scottish parliament on
Tuesday.
"But being able to get children back to education may mean
the rest of us living with some other restrictions for longer,
and that's a trade off we need to be willing to make."
The coronavirus pandemic has meant students have been at
home since before Christmas.
(Reporting by William James; Editing by Kate Holton and Giles
Elgood)