What advantages does your school have for schooling in the time of coronavirus?

[ChavvySexPond]

For instance: one of ours has some classrooms with exterior doors which negates the need to walk through other children's expelled air in the corridors and means arrival times don't have to be quite so staggered, plus helps ventilate the classroom.

They both have halls that can be well ventilated via throwing all the exterior doors open and separate self contained outdoor spaces for outdoor learning and bubble break times.

On the negative side they are big schools with big classes, but not especially large classrooms so social distancing is going to be well nigh impossible.

The one I work in (state primary) is the same as you describe. Plus we have a huge playground, so can easily split it up for bubbled play times.

DD's school has tiny class sizes (A Level).

Upsides: We only have about 40 students. We are therefore one "bubble".

Downsides: tiny and poorly ventilated rooms. No social distancing possible. Children show risky behaviour inside and outside school. High likelihood of physical contact. Very little outside space.

All classrooms at my children's large primary school are on the ground floor with direct exits to the outside.
In the older years there are fewer kids - 21 in my son's class - because so many people have moved out of London for secondary schools/ more space over the years.
On the flip side the playground is small given the size of the school.

Primary - all classrooms have external doors so no issues with corridors and one way systems. Also 3 entrances to the grounds to help with flow of parents at drop off/pick up and lots of outside space.

Secondary - large classrooms with plenty of windows, also under subscribed - some year groups are as small as 100 students, none are more than 150 (not sure about the incoming Y7) in a school which can accommodate up to 240 pupils per year group, so lots of extra classrooms and space in general.

Autism school and classes of 8 children, 2 adults. Rooms are big with own bathroom and outside door with lots of space to distance.

Just goes to show how different everywhere is. All building have different strengths and weaknesses.

Struggling to be honest. A head who I trust completely?

Victorian building, tiny classrooms, windows at 5ft which only open extremely high up if at all, lots of significant behaviour challenges, very transient school population, lots of children who live in multi-generational households, tiny playground which can only have 60 kids playing at one time (school community of 480 children), erm...

We’ve got several different entrances to help with keeping bubbles separate at drop off, combined with staggered starts. Classrooms have external doors. It’s quite a new building and pretty airy, plenty of windows and on one level so no issue with them being open (we’ve been told to supply extra layers for the kids because windows will be open). Large playground too, and trusted headteacher.

Classrooms with external doors, naturally grouped to make bubbling easier. Plenty of outside space. Forest school already set up. One form entry so small. Amazing headteacher, and fantastic staff.

I think the main advantage though, is that it is a primary and not a secondary.

A relationship with the local army unit, meaning we already have large tents set up for extra classrooms, eating areas etc with extra hand washing facilities installed. The ability to split most classes.

A site that allows a one way system, staggered pickups and drop offs etc.

I'm a secondary teacher with a CEV husband.
Lots of staggered break and lunchtimes.
Other than that - no idea.
No idea what will happen with the buses either.
It seems an impossible task.
And due to the a level fiasco there will be less time to plan.
Some of my colleagues will have had no break whatsoever.

Oh, and a one way system. Although we had that before (but you wouldn't have known!)

Pros; The school nursery which is in a tiny little cabin thing, grand total of 5 kids plus 2 ta's at maximum capacity.
When he starts school next year the school has a total of 70 kids.
Loads of outside space. So easy to distance the bubbles at playtime.

Cons; 4 kids loos and sinks for the entire school.
It's all interconnecting corridors and we have hardly any teachers so I expect if one goes down the whole school will close.

Wow, some schools do have advantages!

Pros: only 100 children in the school, no corridors to worry about
Cons: only 4 rooms, none of which are particularly big. Tiny playground.

I work in a large secondary.

Pros: Classrooms have windows that open (some more than others) and the building itself is large and well ventilated so if we leave classroom doors open as well we should get a through draft.

Several external exit points which means each year group can exit through a designated exit to their outside area.

A number of large inside areas e.g. hall/sports hall that we can use for social time if it's raining outside.

Extra cleaning things in classrooms and hand sanitising stations.

A wonderful head teacher -this, for me, is the most important one! She genuinely cares and has done a great job throughout.

Cons: we have a lot of students/staff. Around 1500 students and 180 staff. So it's a lot of people to keep separate/distance from.

Many pupils get school buses so will mix on those or they walk with siblings/friends from other year groups.

We have quite a lot of disadvantaged children who won't have had the encouragement to work during lockdown and will largely have been left to their own devices so they will need extra support when they come back.

As a middle leader, one of the biggest challenges is going to be ensuring that the quality of education is maintained to a high standard while my faculty is all over the school and amid all the coronavirus chaos! For me, in times of chaos/uncertainty, all your energies have to be focused on the quality of teaching and learning so that the pupils achieve the best they can.

I think September will be a long month!

The school I work in has loads of outdoor space so lots of children can play outside at the same but still be in different areas and not mixing (although KS2 will still have to stagger outdoor time) The school is built around a quad so we have a one way system of walking down the corridor-it takes a bit longer to go where you're going but you eventually end up where you started and it worked really well in July.

My DDs school is massively undersubscribed- half the classrooms were empty anyway so they've been able to spread out with each year group having an area they will stay in and teachers will come to them.

It’s very long and thin, because it was two schools next to each other a good distance apart which merged and then subsequent building work has involved connecting the two. This means plenty of doors to the outside. Despite the fact that the school is quite crowded, it ought to make separation of bubbles feasible.

I really appreciate the replies and the thought that's gone into them. Thanks so much to everyone who has responded so far. It's really interesting, and has made me realise other advantages our schools gave that I hadn't appreciated. (Amazing Heads we can trust implicitly, multiple entrances etc)

Pros... i hear the school had an amazing system of social distancing whilst open for key workers. Each classroom has a door to outside and playground is huge for keeping classes seperate.

Cons.... toilets are shared and in main communal areas. School is quick to address absences so may be difficult if parents opt to not send.
The school culture is send child in and we will phone if to sick. In past they didnt phone and told me at pick up that child was struggling all day.
Although as hey have been so strict on any sysmtoms in march and while open for keyworkers the ethos may have changed

That with 300 children a year, mostly coming on school buses, bubbles are pointless and if they close for 2 positive cases then they'll probably spend half the year closed... oh did you say positives?

Several external doors on the building itself which I guess helps, although there are only two gates to get in/out of school grounds so these are a bit of a bottleneck.
Primary school in a large village, so nearly all local children go to the school and nearly all pupils are local which I think is an advantage... no reliance on public transport and the village as a whole is more self contained then other areas with lots of overlapping catchments and mingling between schools.

Lots of parents who are nurses, doctors etc so a good awareness of the issues. We are back already and most seem to be acting sensibly - already had a number of children tested (all negative) due to a cold which is circulating. However maybe this brings home how easily a virus can still spread within the school!

For my DCs school classrooms open straight onto the playground which will help.
However, it's a 4 form entry primary, so bubbles are year group bubbles of 120 children. Children will share playtimes, toilets and lunchtime with their bubble. There's not a lot of playground space. No staggered start times, but car park entrance also being used.
My friend is a TA at the school and all staff will be using the (rather small for the number of people) staff room.

Upsides: we have a lot of outdoor space, our classrooms are almost all accessible from outside which reduces corridor crowding.

Downsides: >75% of our pupils travel on crowded school transport for over half an hour, meaning that any "bubbles" have already burst by the time they arrive on their first day.

None.
Large 3form.entry primary in a too small building mostly built in Victorian times with shitty 80's extension. Poorly ventilated, shitty germ.spreading heating system, tiny corridors with a design that means you have to walk all the way through the entire school to get to uks2, small dining hall, small classrooms, tiny cloakrooms, not enough loos, only 1 staff loo, only one sink area in the class, poorly funded, significant behaviour issues, all classes over 30, some upto 36, no TA in class, kids gets buses to school as we are very rural so serve farms and surrounding villages and hamlets (so they are all crammed in a coach anyway), and a head who doesn't mind risk so has us all in mixed yeargroup bubbles and cleaning toilets after the kids.

Oh, but we've got a playing field. Yay!

It's special school. So already small class sizes, PPe available and we already have strict hygiene standards. (Although the kids rely on us to help them to follow them!)

Our whole school is surrounded by fields so each year is able to keep apart also each year group will be able to enter their own doors due to so many doors leading to the outside.