Going to school
The journey
Children in nursery, reception, year one and year six in primary schools in England, who are due to start a phased return to school from 1 June, will be asked to get to school by foot, bike or car, avoiding public transport as much as possible, accompanied by just one parent or carer.
The drop-off
The new school day may start slightly earlier for some, because there will be a staggered drop-off time to avoid large numbers of parents and children gathering at the school gates. Drop-off areas will ideally be marked out using tape or chalk and adults will be asked to remain outside while pupils queue to get into the building, ideally keeping 2 metres apart. Conversations with adults will be held at a safe social distance outside, or by phone or email, so schools can remain sealed off to all but essential staff and pupils.
The entry
Details will vary from school to school, but Judy Shaw, the headteacher at Tuel Lane infant school in Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, said her children will be asked to assemble in demarcated areas of the playground in their new class groups of up to 15, with whom they will remain throughout the school day. Existing classes at Sowerby Bridge are named after animals, and post-Covid they will all be split into two – for example, badger A and badger B – to limit the numbers mixing together.
The first group will arrive at 8.30am. The children will be welcomed, then led into school. “The first thing the children will do is wash their hands very thoroughly,” said Shaw, a former president of the headteachers’ union. They will not be allowed to bring anything from home – no PE kit, school bag, pencil case, toys or comforters, not even for the youngest children.
New-look classrooms
The schools that pupils return to on 1 June and in the following days will look very different from those they left on 20 March. Much of the furniture and many of the toys that might have been difficult to clean – soft toys, little dinosaurs and other small items – will have been removed. Rooms will be stripped of soft furnishings, and desks, normally in clusters, will be separated. Windows and doors will be kept open for better ventilation and the narrow corridors of Shaw’s Victorian school building will be marked out with tape as a one-way system to keep children a safe distance apart.
The sharing pots of coloured pencils will be gone, there will be no water play, no sand and no playdough. At Shaw’s school, each child will be given a zipped plastic wallet, labelled with their name, which contains a pencil, rubber, four coloured pencils, a glue stick and scissors, which must not be shared. In some schools, there will be spots on the floor to mark where children will sit when they are not at their desk.
Lessons
“We recognise this is a time to bring children back and carry on with the teaching we were doing before,” said Shaw. “But realistically there will be a lot we need to do around personal, social and emotional needs first.” Some families will have suffered bereavements and many children are likely to be anxious so teachers will be keen to settle pupils rather than simply pursue the curriculum. Children will be expected to stay in the same room – apart from outdoor play – with the same classmates and teacher in a “protective bubble”. Each class will be given a box of books each day which will be put “in quarantine” after use and rotated with other groups.
Lunch and playtime
The government has advised schools to stagger lunch and play. The children at Tuel Lane will get a packed lunch at their desk to avoid large gatherings in the hall and then each group will be allowed to go and play in their designated part of the playground, marked off with sports cones. Each group will be allowed one set of simple equipment – for example, balls or hoops – which can be easily cleaned. Staff will clean the classrooms regularly, wiping surfaces and equipment, with a full clean overnight, while children will be expected to observe a strict handwashing regime throughout the day.
Home time
Children will not be allowed to take pictures or other pieces of work home to their families. Pick-up times will be staggered, with each group of children escorted off the site by their assigned teacher, and parents and carers will be expected to wash their child’s clothes at the end of every day. “A lot of the daily spontaneity and joy is going to have to be suppressed for a while because of safety,” said Shaw, but she said her school would remain a warm and nurturing place.