Image source, Allan Lauder

We are wrapping things up on the BBC News NI live page for today.

We hope you will join us again tomorrow from 08:00 for more developments and updates.

Until then, we will leave you with this image of sunrise near Cushendall, County Antrim, sent in by Allan Lauder.

Goodbye for now and take care.

Here's a reminder of some of today's key developments:

• Many pupils in years seven, 12 and 14 in NI are back at school for the first time since March;
• Education Minister Peter Weir said there will be "undoubtedly bumps along the road" and staff and pupils will have to adapt to a new way of working;
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it is "vitally important" children go back to school, with the life chances of a generation at stake;
• Ten new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in NI in the past 24 hours by the Department of Health, but there have been no further deaths linked to coronavirus in the same 24-hour period and the death toll remains at 559;
• The UK's travel industry has reached a "critical point" and is calling for further support to stem job losses.

In late July, after getting the go ahead from the Executive, Derry City and Strabane District Council opened some of its leisure centres on a phased basis.

But its swimming pools did not open along with other facilities such as gyms.

That will change next week.

“The swimming pools at the Foyle Arena, Templemore Sports Complex in Derry and the Riversdale Leisure Centre in Strabane, will reopen on 31 August for lane swimming, household swims and club/group usage,” a council spokeswoman says.

She adds: “A number of changes have been put in place to ensure social distancing and in the interests of health and safety, including pre-booking your slot and coming 'beach ready' to the facility”.

There will be limited access to changing rooms, and lockers won’t be available initially.

Swimming sessions will last a maximum of 60 minutes and the public must pre-book via the reception of the centre they wish to attend.

The use of face coverings in corridors and communal areas of secondary schools is set to be introduced in Scotland.

The government is in the "final stages" of consultations with teachers and councils about making pupils wear face coverings while moving between classes.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was acting in response to new guidance from the World Health Organisation.

Image source, EPA

Schools reopened here earlier to some pupils.

Guidance for the reopening of schools states that face coverings are "strongly encouraged" in NI schools if social distancing is not possible, but are "not generally recommended for routine use".

A number of schools have already said that they will be encouraging the wearing of face coverings and Belfast Royal Academy is making it mandatory for pupils and staff to wear face coverings when they return.

The guidance for the journey to and from school is that it is "strongly recommended that all pupils, regardless of age, should wear a face covering on all buses, trains or taxis for the journey to school" if it is appropriate in their case.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued fresh guidance saying children over the age of 12 should wear masks.

Three primary seven classes at Londonderry’s Holy Family Primary School were this morning among the many school children going back to class for the first time since March.

Principal Garry Matthewson says there was a staggered start time for each of the three classes.

“Teachers met the pupils at the school gates as opposed to the children coming into school,” he told BBC Radio Foyle.

They were then taken into classes via a pathway not normally used before schools closed earlier this year.

Image source, Reuters

Next week, as more pupils return there will be six entrances into school utilised.

Before the pandemic, there was just one.

It is all part of protecting “time and space” and keeping pupils safe, Mr Matthewson said.

As with other schools, temperature checks and hand sanitising are part and parcel of the school day.

“Everything is moving at a slower pace because of all these extra mitigations we’ve put in place. But it is just great to have the children coming back and the school coming back to life again,” he said.

Mr Matthewson said now that children are back, all the planning was well worth it".

The Department of Health says ten new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Northern Ireland in the past 24 hours.

Of these, four are in the age range of 20 to 39 years, with three in the age bracket between 40 to 59 years.

The 10 cases announced by the Department of Health on Monday were fewer than some of the increases seen in recent days.

Of these, the biggest increase was seen in the Antrim and Newtownabbey area, with five new cases recorded in the past 24 hours.

The Mid and East Antrim area and Belfast both saw two new cases, while there was one new case in Armagh, Banbridge, and Craigavon.

In the past week, the biggest spike in cases has been seen in the Mid and East Antrim area, where there have been 95 cases.

Ten new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Northern Ireland in the past 24 hours by the Department of Health.

There have been no further deaths linked to coronavirus in the same 24-hour period and the death toll remains at 559.

There have now been 6,776 cases of the virus diagnosed in Northern Ireland.

Pupils at one north west school were welcomed back this morning for the first time in five months with a temperature check and hand sanitisers

“We spent approximately an hour on an induction outlining what was ahead and the expectations of school life in the next few months,” Brendan McGinn, acting principal of St Mary's College in Londonderry told BBC Radio Foyle.

By mid-morning it was back to almost business as normal, he said.

Image source, PA Media

“After break, from lesson three, they started their timetable.

“Year 14s for example, are in a zone, around the science corridors, and that is their area of learning. The desks are at least one metre apart,” he said.

Pupils are wearing masks when they cannot keep at least 1m apart.

There has been no “serious problems” as of yet on day one, he said.

But the new measures now need to be “road tested”.

“It has to be flexible, we have to respond should anything arise. We are listening carefully to pupils, listening to parents and the staff and are going to do our very, very best,” he said.

Teachers have been preparing for the return of pupils now for weeks. One way systems in corridors and visors for teachers are some of the measures in place, as some of these photos showing Year Seven pupils returning below show.

Image source, PA

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Pacemaker

Image source, Pacemaker

As we've been discussing, many pupils in years seven, 12 and 14 are back at school today for the first time since March.

Parents and teachers in schools which have already reopened have been telling us what they've learned from their children returning to the classroom, including one mother who discussed the Scottish experience.

England's deputy chief medical officer has said a Public Health England study published on Sunday , externalshould "reassure" teachers that transmission from students to teachers is rare, as children head back to school.

But Dr Jenny Harries added in an interview with BBC Breakfast that staff-to-staff transmission was a "risk factor" and teachers should "ensure that they maintain their social distancing, good hand hygiene, all those sorts of things" during coffee breaks.

In the event that a pupil tests positive for a virus, Dr Harries said the first action should be to inform the local director of public health.

What happens next "will depend on the local circumstances of that school, and the different connections that people have had", she said.

A single case is "most likely" to be from a family or an outside transmission and "it may not always be necessary" for a classroom to go into isolation, she added.

Job losses triggered by the coronavirus pandemic will hurt some parts of the UK more than others and deepen regional inequality, Labour has said.

Areas with a high proportion of workers in struggling sectors, such as aviation, retail and manufacturing, would be hardest hit, the party added.

Tens of thousands of job losses have already been announced and more are expected in these sectors.

The government said it was committed to "levelling up opportunities" in the UK.

Image source, PA Media

About 10 million UK workers have had their wages paid by the government through the scheme, designed to prevent mass redundancies, which will end in October.

Labour has repeated its call for the government to implement a more tailored withdrawal of the scheme.

"The government's one-size-fits-all approach will see some communities hit harder and they must adopt a more tailored approach now if we are to avoid further job losses," Jonathan Reynolds, shadow work and pensions secretary, said.

Read more here.

The UK's travel industry has reached a "critical point" and is calling for further support to stem job losses.

Measures to curb the pandemic have already led to the loss of about 39,000 jobs, said travel industry trade body ABTA.

About 65% of travel firms have had to make redundancies or start a consultation process.

ABTA said the industry desperately needs "tailored support" or many more jobs would be lost.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) warned that more job losses were set to come as the government's furlough scheme is phased out, unless new support measures are introduced.

Image source, AFP

"With the government's stop start measures, the restart of travel has not gone as hoped for the industry, and sadly businesses continue to be adversely affected and jobs are being lost at an alarming rate," said ABTA's chief executive Mark Tanzer.

"Coming towards the end of the traditional period for peak booking, we have hit a critical point as existing government measures to support businesses begin to taper off, the consequence of which, according to this survey of ABTA Members will be ruinous for more people's livelihoods."

ABTA said many travel firms had not yet restarted after the lockdown, with cruise firms and school travel operators still closed for business.

Read more here

It’s not just schools that are reopening here today.

Some court sittings will take place for the first time since March – 12 courts are reopening though much court business will still be carried out remotely.

Solicitor Paul Dougan said a lot of work has been ongoing despite the five-month closure of NI’s courthouses.

“The courts are very good at trying to identify cases that can be dealt with without all the trappings of a full blown jury trial," he says.

"Those have been identified over the last number of months so guilty pleas, sentencing hearings, arraignments – all of those have been reviewed by Crown Court judges and by defence practitioners.

“Cases that are trial ready, if you like, have been identified,” he says.

Anxiety levels among young teenagers dropped during the coronavirus pandemic, a study has suggested.

Thirteen to 14-year-olds were less anxious during lockdown than they had been last October, according to the University of Bristol survey.

Researchers surveyed 1,000 secondary school children in south west England.

They said the results were a "big surprise" and it raised questions about the impact of the school environment on teenagers' mental health.

The findings come after Prof Chris Whitty, the UK's chief medical adviser, said children were more likely to be harmed by not returning to school than they were if they caught coronavirus.

The UK's four chief medical officers have sought to allay parents' concerns ahead of schools reopening in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Schools in Scotland have already returned.

More on this story is here.

Two year groups return this week to Belfast Girls' Model.

Like schools across Northern Ireland, there are a number of new measures in place that pupils and staff will have to get used to.

“We have taken some considerable time to work through the guidance to make sure we are doing all we can to keep our staff and pupils safe,” assistant principal Nia Cambell said.

Image source, PA Media

New measures include protective bubbles for key stage three pupils, designated zones for entering and exiting the school, sanitising stations and specific break and lunch areas.

Mrs Campbell expects “situations to arise that we have never thought of before”.

“We really want to look after our students and we really want them in the building. So we are very willing to give this a go, and we will be constantly reviewing it,” she said.

“Given the time frame it was most important to us to welcome our young people back into the building. It is a constant process of review right now,” she added

As schools begin to return across Northern Ireland this morning, there have been some concerns raised about the type of PPE and hygiene supplies available.

Speaking earlier, Education Minister Peter Weir said that while there may be "bumps along the road", there was a "safe regime" for schools to return.

This morning, one teacher has sent us an example of the type of PPE they have been provided with for a return to school, showing gloves, a gown, and a visor.

Image source, PA Media

Sandra Isherwood, principal at Jones Memorial Primary School in Enniskillen, said there’s a mix of apprehension and excitement at her school as pupils return.

Parents will this week be given a tour of each classroom.

It’s a way of giving them some reassurance over safety measures now in place at the school, she says.

It’s vital children get back to school, she adds.

“We do feel children are missing out on their social interaction, which is a key part of their learning," she says.

"A lot of pupils have been shielding, or not had access to gardens, or access to facilities to talk and share their stories.

“During this transition period we will be looking at the nurturing of them and allowing time within the curriculum timetable for them to talk and share their experiences as well as refreshing them on their literacy,” she says.

Robbie Meredith
BBC News NI Arts and Education Correspondent

As Northern Ireland's 340,000 school children begin their phased return, cases of Covid-19 among staff and pupils will not be unusual.

On Friday, two schools in west Belfast had cases, St Louise’s, a big comprehensive, and right besides it, St Kevin’s, a very big primary with about 600 pupils.

One member of staff in each school had contracted Covid-19, and it meant St Kevin’s, which was planning to open to pupils this morning, cannot do so.

Ballyclare Secondary is another example. It had a pupil test positive for coronavirus, so again it will not be opening to pupils today.

It will come down to how these cases are handled.

The guidance is that schools should not be closed, but that classes could end up being sent home to self-isolate and get tested if a pupil tests positive.

We expect that to happen quite a lot. You have 340,000 children coming back to school over the next couple of weeks, along with more than 15,000 teachers, and thousands of other staff.

There will be a lot of attention paid to how this is handled.

School supplies is another issue.

Speaking to the principal at St Clare's Primary School in west Belfast, the school has been provided with some items, but said the school itself had to source some items itself last week.

It is not the case that every school has been supplied with everything that it needs, that would seem to be certain.

In some cases there may be schools which haven’t had delivery of some of that essential health and hygiene material.

It was a difficult decision to close schools, but a much more complicated one to get them opened.