When is February half term in England as Boris Johnson says schools will be closed until then?

February half term in England in 2021 will look quite different for many families this year thanks to the ongoing strain of the coronavirus pandemic on parents, teachers and children alike.

Parents across the UK are currently back to homeschooling their little ones, after the ongoing threat of Covid-19 caused the government to close schools and plunge the nation into a full lockdown for January.

Announcing the decision to once again shut schools, the Prime Minister said: "I want to stress that the problem is not that schools are unsafe for children – children are still very unlikely to be severely affected by even the new variant of Covid.

“The problem is that schools may nonetheless act as vectors for transmission, causing the virus to spread between households.”

Schools are still open to the children of key workers, but will be shut to all other pupils until at least the February half term. So when will that be and when is February half term in England this year?

When is February half term in England in 2021?

In England, the February half term falls between Monday 15th February and Friday 19th February in 2021. Under the new government guidelines for school closures, schools and colleges will be closed until at least the Monday of the half term holiday - which is February 15th.

February half term 2021 will look a lot different for students across the country. While pupils will still get their usual break from lessons, they will have to continue to stay at home with their parents as they have been doing whilst learning from home.

After the half term break, the government hope to re-open schools, meaning the first day back will be Monday 22nd February 2021. However, there is no guarantee that restrictions will definitely be lifted after this time.

Speaking to Sky News, Chancellor Michael Gove explained: "We can't predict with certainty that we will be able to lift restrictions in the week commencing February 15-22.

"What we will be doing is everything that we can to make sure that as many people as possible are vaccinated, so that we can begin to progressively lift restrictions."

Currently, medical professionals are working to get the Covid vaccine (opens in new tab) administered to as many people as possible to try and stop the spread of the virus.