Actually, I think one of the big things is how different that will be and how that will impact on little ones. Big kids, you can explain it to, so it makes some sense. But little ones?
And think about what they would normally do in a classroom, and what of that can be easily and quickly cleaned. Anything that cannot be easily cleaned should be removed.
No books, reading books or books just to look at.
No comfy cushions.
No Lego (you can clean plastic but hundreds of tiny pieces?)
No soft toys
No dressing up
No colouring unless you bring your own
No play dough or plasticine
Ours won’t be able to use the climbing frames etc in the playground because we can’t clean it properly in between each bubble using it and it’s not fair to one group to say “You can use it” and the rest “you can’t”.
And the toys that are there, the teachers have to be able to clean fast, in between supervising loads of extra hand washing, cleaning shared surfaces like sinks etc.
I would also like to throw in here that if there is one teacher per bubble, to prevent cross infection, then how does that teacher go to the loo? Or indeed, have a lunch break? I’m eating with my bubble I guess. And who supervises the kids while I’m cleaning the loo?
I do worry about the little ones coming back. The ones who were always reluctant to come back anyway after a couple of weeks at home with mum. I keep reading people saying “They need normality.” We’ll, it won’t be, because their classroom will look different and their day will operate differently and their teacher might be different...
And “They need their education”. How much will they really learn, at that age, if they are confused, and we don’t have all the resources which we use to help them learn in the best way for their age? Five year olds do not learn by sitting at a desk listening to a teacher. We know that, so they don’t do it in school. If, last September, you thought that’s how your child was spending their school day, there would have been uproar, because that’s not how they learn. So why are we pretending that they will learn that way now?
I’ve seen “Kids will have to adapt.” Yup. But not by overturning the way their brains process information at 5 years old.
Our job will be making sure they feel safe and secure. They won’t be back to reality, and they won’t do much learning (even if we work out the best way to teach them in the new normal, if they are more concerned with why their friend isn’t in, they won’t take it in anyway).
I want to go back. But I am worried about the impact this will have on the kids I care about.