My sons primary school have measured their classrooms...

[DonLewis]

And if social distancing is how schools will be able to open, they can fit 9 children in per classroom.

Reception is 3 form entry and totally open plan.

It's a virtually brand new building, so not like the school I went to, a tiny voctorain thing with portacabins in the playground as dinner huts.

So, how does this work? Most classes have 32+kids in them.

Some researchers are now concerned that the coronavirus is not just carried in droplets.

They worry that it can also be transported through the air in tiny particles called aerosols.

If that is the case, then the flow of wind from someone's breath could carry the virus over longer distances.

Professor Lydia Bourouiba from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used high-speed cameras to capture a cough projecting miniature specks as far as six metres.

She is critical of the current safety guidance: "Having this false idea of safety at one to two metres - that somehow drops will just fall to the ground at that distance - is not based on what we have quantified, measured and visualised directly."

And a study carried out at hospitals in China , which found traces of coronavirus in Covid-19 wards and intensive care units, estimated that four metres is a better safe distance

I've been drawing mental pictures in my mind as to how many kids I could safely fit in my (large) classroom. I reckon 10, physically, but a colleague who was on rota today with 6 kids said that was probably the upper limit for safe distancing on 2 metres, once they're in the room and being kids.
I'm sure the likes of biscuit will call me uncaring and defeatist, but I can't see a way round this, unless they scrap the distance thing altogether, and watching the 6 o'clock news tonight on transport networks, I can't see the general public being happy about that.

I don’t see that there is any reason for social distancing between young children. The latest ONS figures show, once again, that there were no Covid deaths in under 15’s. My children’s school had a number of confirmed cases before lockdown (both children and adults) and I am not aware of anyone being hospitalised let alone dying. If we don’t get some perspective on this virus, we will destroy our children’s futures. I keep reading comments on social media from parents who want to keep their kids locked up for years. The parent’s anxiety is going to cause far more damage to the children than the virus.

Hmm.... at least 15 cases of the mystery Kawasaki type illness in NYC hospitals, all in ICUs. 10 tested at some stage +ve for CV.

The 2 metres rule is arbitrary in a sense. It's a statistical thing. 2 metres isn't safe. It is just 'safer' than one and less safe than 3.

But none of this can work in schools at all as people have realised. Corridors and bathrooms are not designed for it and we can't have them going on alternate days as their parents need to work every day.

And that, I might point out, is with schools closed....

BunsyGirl I think they are going to have to go back to school but you forget that they can carry it and pass it on. So while they are unlikely to die they will ensure the virus is spread to every parent.

I think in a typical class of 30 the only way to manage it is to divide classes into two and so each day 15 of the students attend classes. So part time provision basically.

What concerns me is the inherent advantage many private schools will have. I know some local private primaries with less than 15 kids per class, so I expect those kids could go back full time without any problems. And so the inequality between private school kids and many others widens even further.

Social distancing (as in always staying at least 2m apart) in schools just isn't going to happen. This needs to be acknowledged by those up top now before we go any further. It doesn't matter if there are 3, 10, 30 to a class. It's not going to happen.

My Kids won’t be back to school until September - there is no way I am sending mine back 8 and 12 - we live with my mother who is 80 and has had cancer which is now remission - I am not taking this chance.

@DonLewis are you in North Lincs by any chance?

@Offred2 Private schools have smaller classes but they also have smaller classrooms. I can assure you that there is no room for 20 kids two metres apart in my children’s classrooms. There also wasn’t room in the three other private schools that I looked at when I chose a school for them.

@Offred2 Also, splitting the day is highly impractical for private schools as the children tend to travel much longer distances to school. It would mean that parents with children in two or more years would spend their whole day driving to and from school. The benefit that private schools do have is that the teachers will be more flexible. My children’s school has already extended the school year for 20-21 to reduce the holidays and increase the teaching time.

Agree with PPs, it is not at all practical, impossible to maintain and quite simply unworkable in a school for pupils to maintain at least 2m distance from others at all times.

I believe we should wait until social distancing ends before opening schools. Or just accept the contact that will happen.

Splitting the day is also impractical for all schools for cleaning reasons. They'd need cleaned at lunchtime and at the end of the day.

@BunsyGirl that’s a good point about classroom size. I never really considered that private schools are likely to have smaller classrooms to begin with.

Briefing today, they said schools in Denmark was managing social distancing in younger pupils at school, and it had been successful.😬

I work in school. We have about 15 children in at the mo. Social distancing is impossible and these are the same children who have been in since day one and constantly reminded. I'm scared.

A) in the Netherlands it’s only 1.5m.
B) primary schools and crèches are reopening on May 11 here and the kids are not expected to socially distance, because they’re little kids and the Dutch government is actually realistic.

with no factual evidence at all, i think that schools may go back in their entirety for the last 2 weeks of term in July. As everyone has said....& I agree, social distancing/rotas etc are going to be unworkable. So the government will send everyone back & cross their fingers that everyone will get ill over the summer holidays.....not a good idea !
I know that worrying about it is way above my paygrade & also counter productive but I really can't see any viable alternative.

I’m scared too.

Some backpedaling on briefing thoug. Hancock said something about having to relook at schools and the R value

If Nicola Sturgeon warns that opening all primary schools in Scotland at once could "overwhelm the NHS," saying that a return before summer holidays there begin in June may not be possible.
it would seem rather improbable that the same thing wouldn’t be true in England?!

No one thinks they’re going to open all at once though do they?

looking at some people's responses to these types of threads,
yes.
I believe that some people think that it will be everyone back in from the get go.