Are schools closing following the death of Queen Elizabeth II?
The Monarch passed away in Scotland on 8 September.
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Your support makes all the difference.Buckingham Palace confirmed that Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96, prompting the question of whether or not schools in the UK will be closed following her death.
On Thursday, the Royal Family’s twitter account shared that the Queen “died peacefully at Balmoral,” after 70 years on the throne.
As reported by BirminghamLive, the Department for Education (DfE) will inform schools if they will be closing in the upcoming days or not. A representative for the DfE previously told the publication that it “will issue advice in due course to all schools should [the Queen die]”.
Although plans have not yet been made to close schools, reports have said that schools will likely observe a day for mourning on the date of the Queen’s funeral and that day will be considered a bank holiday.
The site also noted that the Queen’s funeral will reportedly be taking place on Monday 19 September.
Per documents for the Operation London Bridge, the plan created in the event of Queen Elizabeth’s death, the day of her funeral will be considered a “Day of National Mourning”.
As Politicoexplained, the funeral “will effectively be a bank holiday, although it will not be named as such.”
“If the funeral falls on the weekend or an existing bank holiday, an extra bank holiday will not be granted. If the funeral falls on a weekday, the government does not plan to order employers to give employees the day off — the documents say that is a matter between employees and their staff,” the outlet reported.
There will also be a 10-day mourning period for the Queen in the UK, but schools are not required to close for that time.
Operation London Bridge also notes that the funeral itself will be held at Westminster Abbey and there will be a two minute period of silence across the UK.
The Independent has reached out to the Department for Education for comment.
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