Are your Yr 6 children social distancing?

[HorsesDoovers]

My DS has been back at school this week, he has told me that at certain times of the day, namely break/lunch times and when queuing up to wash their hands, there is no attempt to reinforce social distancing. However, they are sitting at their own desk in the classroom with their own equipment, so it is happening at these times.
Just interested to know what other Yr6 children are doing and how strict schools are being with this age group. I know that Yr R and Yr 1 are not expected to practice social distancing and I'm trying to work out if good hygiene is enough to keep him safe.

It won't be completely safe, no. Unless you're vulnerable though it's probably low risk to you

Social distancing in school, particularly for younger dc or dc with additional needs is very near impossible. The whole strategy seems to be to reduce contact as much as possible but social distancing cannot be done when all the dc are in school full time, so it's just baby steps atm isn't it?

Strategies and rules are highly dependent on the school, the staffs needs and the dc's needs. It's down to risk assessment, class sizes, h and s. I feel schools have a gargantuan task ahead of them (though imo they've been working extremely hard throughout the pandemic). My 3 are not back in yet but I have been told of all the guidelines for each school as were updated constantly and all 3 schools have very different practices in place.

I think you can tell older dc to keep their distance but once amongst their pals who they've not seen for weeks/months they're bound to be excited.

I was just interested in what was happening in other schools with this age group. I realise once more children are back it will be impossible.

Not massively, no
But it doesn't worry me as neither DS or I are vulnerable nor do we have contact with vulnerable people.

In our school there's zero social distancing. We try our best in lesson time, but aside from that it's totally out of the window

lucieee thank you that's interesting, do you have all year groups in?

My dd teaches year 6, they aren’t expecting the kids to social distance but are keeping them in smallish groups .

Bluewarbler ok thank you, DS is in a bubble of 15.

My year 6 went back on Monday, they are expected to distance. Groups of 8-9 with a teacher and TA, desks spread out, only one allowed in the toilets at a time. They have had some inventive ideas of games to play at break and lunch whilst staying 2m apart! And despite everything he has enjoyed it

Thanks Eccle80 that is more what we were expecting and what we had prepared DS for, following a conversation with the Deputy Head. So its come as a surprise that they aren't following it, although I do understand it might just not be possible in a practical sense.

@HorsesDoovers no at the minute it's just keyworker children and vulnerable children - about 30 in total. We've separated tables and split into groups etc, but they all walk over to each other, take each other's pencil crayons, play on the playground with each other. This week I've had my hand held, had children sat on my knee, had to restrain children who were being violent towards others. It's physically impossible to socially distance.

@lucieee this is Year 6 though so they do have more control and ability to understand the rules. I have spoken again with the Deputy Head as DS was very upset and confused. They are saying 1 metre inside the classrooms and 1 metre outside with their bubble, and 2 metres with everyone else, but she said the teachers are allowing that to be relaxed outside a little so they can play together.

We have several year 6s and 5s in our key worker/vulnerable group and they are much better and social distancing, but as the weeks have gone on they've gotten forgetful (or maybe just defiant!) and are not distancing at all inside or outside the classroom. I think because they have been in school the whole time, whereas the children coming back now have had time to practice and understand that school is now different, so hopefully they'll be much better at it!

@lucieee thank you for your insights, very interesting how it differs in each school and how the children change their behaviour over time.