Just to say I’m in Wales so this is not an issue yet but presumably will be in September.
My DC 9 goes to an amazing primary school. It is so amazing that more than half of the children who go there are from out of catchment. It is the best performing school in an area where the nearest surrounding schools are not great at all.
It was originally a one room country school for the children of farm labourers, it had a small extension in the 70’s but the number of children attending it has more than tripled since then.
Virtually all of the classrooms have two year groups in them, combined classes of between 30 and 39 children. These classrooms are small and the children are really crammed in. There is such a lack of indoor space that they had to convert a staff toilet into a tiny room to be used for child support. The corridors are very, very narrow and the hall which was tiny anyway has had to have some of it given over to make a make shift classroom/work space. The dining hall is so small that they already have to stagger lunch sittings.
They are quite simply bursting at the seams with so many children and so little space. They have been begging the council for help to extend for years while only receiving a constant stream of budget cuts.
So how on earth are they supposed to have the children back with any kind of social distancing? The management and teachers are fantastic but that doesn’t change the logistics. I feel so sorry for them and have no idea what they will be able to do.