For those who want schools to go back..

[pfrench]

.. tell us how you think it should work. Primary or secondary.

In your ideal world.

How would social distancing be adhered to?
How about drop off and pick up?
How would classrooms operate?
How about lunchtimes and breaktimes?
What about after school childcare provision?
What about staff who are sheidling?
What about children who are sheilding?
What about staff who have family members who are sheilding?
Should only some children go back? Who should they be and why?

So many education and school experts on here, it will be interesting to read your safe solutions.

In my class, for the week before lockdown, every child had their own set of stationery and equipment, name labelled. All communal equipment was put away, and the tables were wiped 5x per day.

However if it is air movement that transmits the virus, then tbh I'm a bit stuffed, as all windows are at the back of the classroom, so all air moves towards me...

Uniforms worn 2 days in a row, paper towel holders, lost PE kit.....

I'm thinking in terms of secondary when I write about this. I think we can hand out pencils, let the kids keep them, and that's it in terms of equipment. Even handing out worksheets is problematic, and I think we will have to be super organised and have them all laid out on tables in advance. And the kids are going to have to deal with the fact that we've touched them all. I think it's better to rely on teachers having good hand hygiene than kids. I don't think surface contamination is a big vector, but I do think it probably contributes to the viral load and should be avoided as much as possible.

But not every class can operate like that! Sometimes in my classes we have about 15 items of shared specialist equipment. One item needs 45 finger touch points before you can even use it

I agree. I don't think they can operate. I think there are lots of subjects that will be unworkable. Music lessons - you can't have singing. You can't give kids musical instruments. IT. They can't use keyboards. Lots of impossible subjects.

That was a very interesting article.
And in my classroom I'm stuffed wrt airflow - there are two windows that have restricted opening (for safety) at the back if the class, and that's it

Paper towels? !! My school doesn't have paper towels due to budget ...

I think in secondary we are going to have to operate like primary. Every student will have a tray of work and equipment in one classroom with one teacher all day. Maybe workbooks to work through for each subject so it doesn't matter what subject specialism the teacher is, with the teacher having a PowerPoint or similar for each subject that day. Each class allocated a break time, comfort break time, lunch in the classroom....

There will be risks, for staff, pupils, and households. Government will presumably decide when the social/physical risks to some DC from being AH outweigh Covid risks.

So would assume relatively normal operations.

Whynotme how would that be any better than working at home? How would it help exam year pupils? There would not be many groups of students who had all chosen the exact same subjects anyway.

But we as teachers are personally responsible for the safety of our students

It would be childcare only.
Until track and trace is in operation

I was in my office at work last week and something went wrong in my computer. I didn’t know the fix, so I asked a colleague, who came in, leaned over me and handled the mouse.

After she had gone, I sanitised my hands. I figured the problem about touching stuff is that if you subsequently touch your face, there’s a risk.

Is it possible therefore to hand out equipment if you have hand sanitiser?

Sky were just talking about a yougov poll they've just done and 75% of people think the lockdown should continue as of today which then drops to only 20% continuing to support it past June 1st. Boris does love an audience so I bet this is factored into his plan.

What hand sanitiser??

What hand sanitiser??

There was a head teacher on the news the other day saying that they had been spending lockdown installing 15 new hand washing units and stockpiling hand sanitiser ready for reopening - I guess most people would assume that all head teachers are thinking about to improve their own schools and creating their pandemic plans to ensure schools are opened as safely as possible and not just waiting for the vague government guidance that will come out.

No, I don’t have any in my nhs job either. The stuff I used was produced from my handbag, I bought a job lot for £30 on the internet, which I thought was money well spent.

You would hope so....

I'm still waiting for my delivery of hand sanitizer ordered in March...

I bought mine from a place called damson in Yorkshire. £3.50 a bottle, came within 3 days. I didn’t want to wait for the NHS to supply me.

I think we can trust teachers to use good hygiene and hand things out. I don't think we can trust kids to have good hygiene before they hand them back and we don't have time to disinfect every piece of equipment between groups. So, handing things out that never come back - fine. Handing things out on loan - bad.

Also, walking up and down aisles and spending lots of time mingling in with the students breaching the 2m... or 1m.... or 30cm rule or whatever they bring in... bad.

Yeah, agreed. I’ve volunteered to help with a cleaning rota in my local school, if required. I’d be quite happy to sanitise equipment between lessons on behalf of the staff.

Though I don’t know why I’ve bothered....sitting here in my garden in my social isolation, DH at work on the covid ITU and my neighbours are clearly having a party. Their kids and their friends are being very noisy. My kids looking at me asking why we are isolating.