What measures are your schools putting in place for Back to School?

[Blogdog]

My children’s school has promised us an email next week with full details of back to school arrangements. It’s a small school so am hoping things won’t be too different from previous years but time will tell I suppose.

Just wondering what other schools are putting in place re Covid 19? I’ve heard a few of the larger secondary schools released info packs last week but no word on primary arrangements.

I don't have a school-age child thankfully but have seen a few posts on Twitter saying that schools are expecting uniforms washed every night, staggered drop-offs with no waiting around in between etc. Would be difficult enough with one child but can't imagine how those with more than one are going to be expected to manage!

Yes - there was an article in the Irish Times today saying washing uniforms every night was not government advice and was an onerous burden to place on parents! I’ll do it if I have to but not looking forward to it.

Staggered drop offs seem to be common but does anyone have any idea how that works if you’ve a few kids in different classes?

I work in a preschool that is in a school. The principal has told me that she doesn't want any parents getting out of their cars. Children are going to picked up at the drop off point by teachers. Have no idea how this is going to work for us as we had been collecting from outside the door.
After that I dont know. We have told our parents clean clothes every day for staff and children, no bags,lunchbox or bottles, we will provide drinks and lunch is to be brought in a ziplock bag, so dont know if school will say the same about lunch boxes.

How is a ziplock bag less risk than a lunchbox?

No idea about primary, they've texted to say they have a plan, but who knows what it is.
Secondary seems ok and have a detailed plan from them. Masks in corridors and for group work, no lockers, no changing (go in pe stuff on pe day).
School buses are a different story, both dc get the bus and no idea what their plans are but that hasn't stopped them asking for terms fees upfront.

Our primary school will be trying to keep children in their class bubble (30 to 35) so different break times, lunch times etc. Staggered drop off but will accept all siblings at the earlier time.
Secondary are treating a year group as a bubble, so roughly 200 children. They are asking that on busses they sit with their year group and wear masks. Then in school each year has a cluster of rooms so they can split into different sets for each subject. Each also has an allocated bathroom, so portable toilets are being brought in. They will only leave their own area for lunch which will be staggered. Don’t know if they will be able to have break outside. On PE day they will have to wear their kit to travel to school and keep it on all day (imagine the whiff of the older teens). They won’t be running their usual out of school clubs and I don’t know how practice subjects will work ie science experiments, home economics.

@PopcornAndWine. I dont know, maybe it's to protect the children at home, as in the bag is thrown out not taken home. I am not happy about that, I wanted a paper bag or even tin foil but was told it had to be a ziplock bag. All that plastic makes my heart hurt.

Got an email on Friday for my two (national school), similar to Easter Buns. Class bubble, staggered collection, no sharing pencils, two classes per break time (28 children per class, small school),
no parents in the yard at drop off, no calling into the office without an appointment, staggered collection times and no younger siblings playing in the yard at pick up. No written homework for Sept to ease the kids back into it - my children are delighted about that. Nothing about washing uniforms daily.

@Iblinkedandiamold

I work in a preschool that is in a school. The principal has told me that she doesn't want any parents getting out of their cars. Children are going to picked up at the drop off point by teachers. Have no idea how this is going to work for us as we had been collecting from outside the door. After that I dont know. We have told our parents clean clothes every day for staff and children, no bags,lunchbox or bottles, we will provide drinks and lunch is to be brought in a ziplock bag, so dont know if school will say the same about lunch boxes.

Your principal is funny no parents getting out of their cars honestly

We had to wash uniform daily to get our y6 back for the last few weeks of term but both primary and secondary have stated this won’t be the case in September.

Staggered drop off and pick up times; staggered yard times; isolation zone set up; classroom seating changed; one way system in corridors; separate entry and departure points for classes; pods in every room; hand sanitizer units installed; hand washing throughout the day; a lot of emphasis on self-correction; changes to homework; no external teachers (drama/ GAA, etc); 2 metre area cordoned off at top of room and children not allowed into that area; if teacher leaves that area, he/she must wear mask and visor; staff room socially distanced; no singing or sharing of equipment-own pencils etc clearly labelled; all items of clothing clearly labelled. That’s for starters.

Just got a text to say we'll get info this week. I haven't bought books or uniforms yet, waiting on the info. Due back Tues week.

Both of my kids are in different secondary schools and I have heard nothing at all. Not even a return to school date from one of them.
They're both starting new schools too.

We got part one of the plan on Friday, expecting a second email on Friday. It's a dublin primary with 400+ children.

• Staggered drop off and pick up by surname so siblings can go into the yard together (no parents inside the gate) and split off into their separate entry points. Not sure how pick up will work as up to third class are usually collected in the yard.
• separate home and school pencil cases so they aren't bringing them in and out. Readers were always left at home so will do that this year too, other books as possible.
• staggered outside time. We're lucky to have a yard and pitch so a decent amount of space to separate out the class bubbles.
• every child has to have a bottle of hand sanitiser in their bag.
• no extra curricular or external activities until at least February.
• request to walk/cycle if at all possible to minimise traffic and associated delays.

Nothing about lunch boxes. We're a green school so i think that would be a step too far. Due back next Thursday so fingers crossed all goes well. I feel for the incoming junior infants.

Staggered drop off and pick up times
Separate playground areas for each bubble
Eating lunch in their classrooms/bubble
Dedicated toilet and sink for each bubble
First Aid stations in each classroom
Separate coaches for each bubble when they travel for their fortnightly PE morning at the local community centre
One way systems and giveway markers in corridors
Reorganised desks so that children all face the front. I think they may be sitting in pairs.
Breakfast club and wrap around is starting a week into term and children will be sat in 3s, in their bubbles, on the same side of the table.

Uniform washed daily is a joke. I would just send them in without doing that. Who would know? Plus not like they can force you to wash every day. How much uniform must some people have?!

Wish the government were clearer on insane policies like this. My kids nursery wanted parent only drop off and pick up.... Parents kicked back and now grandparents/CMs etc allowed.

Just got primary schools plan and its v sensible. They want clean clothes daily rather than correct uniform, which seems fine.
But a bit short notice for a new rule of velcro shoes only for first class and under!

Our dc's small primary are doing a few things:

• Staggered drop-off and collection times
• Different playtimes and lunch times
• No after school clubs
• Desks facing the front
• Knocking ONE HOUR OFF EVERY SCHOOL DAY for the purpose of cleaning

Knocking an hour off the day? Is that because they need teachers to clean due to lack of budget?

Please rise up parents and demand better funding for education. If this pandemic has shown you anything, it's how underfunded schools are.

Are you in the Republic or Northern Ireland @babyguffingtonstrikes again?

Changes here will mostly affect the kids but not massively:

No sharing pens etc
Stick with your classroom, staggered breaks
Assigned door/toilet
Wash lunch boxes daily (who doesn't do that )

No changes for parents really...drop and collect at gate but I would be doing that anyway. And I would wash uniforms almost daily anyway (generic uniform so always get a few changes). The school says wash as often as possible.

They will miss out on a few mixed class things they do but not too bad...fingers crossed it all happens now.

Sorry I didn't see that this was Craicnet when I clicked on it in active discussions. I'm actually England.

Apart from staggered starts and sanitiser, I don’t really see what our school are doing differently. The classrooms are still over crowded (35 in ds’ class), even more under resourced than they were. They will still be sitting in inward-facing groups of 6, now optimistically called “pods” in the hopes of fooling the virus. There will be 1m between pods, which was probably the case last year too although there was always a problem with them “drifting”. So unless they are going to nail the desks to the floor I can’t see that it’s possible to take anything for granted about the space between pods.

There’s a long list of circumstances for missing school but no clear guidance on what is necessary to return to school (negative test result? number of days?) DS sniffled almost every day from sept to March (substantiating his claim that he’s allergic to school), and Dd has never got through winter without a cough. Do I have to keep them both off if I hear a sneeze?

They’ve established 3 starting and leaving times, by alphabetical order which is sensible. But still there will be a third of the school mixing at the gates every five minutes.

They have staggered break times, and divided the yard into sections, but if I’m understanding it correctly that will be half the school on the yard at a time and a teacher supervising the whole yard.

It all seems a bit cosmetic. I’m very nervous about what the next couple of months will bring. I can see that the dc desperately need to get back to school, but I wish the govt would have followed the school model of countries like Denmark where the return to education didn’t cause a spike rather than the ones like Israel that did.

I’m vulnerable and we’ve been very careful. I’m not especially worried for the dc, as much as for myself. I wouldn’t feel right holding them back at this stage. They’ve been troopers so far but I think if I held them back now it would have a very negative effect on their mental health. I have to keep in mind that, realistically, we will probably be ok. But I’m angry that after decades of fighting about class sizes in this country, we can be faced with a pandemic and even then there is no will to tackle the problem. It’s pathetic.

DDs primary school is the pretty much the same as yours @thelegohooverer I know so of her classmates are upset about the pod idea but DD (10) seems to get along with everyone the same rather than having specific "best" friends so I think she'll be ok with that. There will be no homework for September and then the situation will be reviewed - DD will be happy if they keep that in place!

DS is starting secondary school and will have to wear a mask all the time. No mingling in corridors, no lockers, no after school clubs and no canteen. Also PE will be "theory based" for the first term, whatever that means I feel so bad for them that they won't get to really experience secondary school the way it should be and hope to god they'll get the chance to soon...

I forgot to add... what worries me is what will happen when teachers are absent. Previously if a sub can't be got the class would be split up and sent to various classes for the day. Our school have told us in writing that this can't happen now and that if a sub can't be got the class will be sent home and it may be at short notice. They also warned of a lack of substitute teachers so I can see this happening A LOT this coming school year and I'm not looking forward to having to leave work to pick up DD each time. Not sure what the plan is for similar situation in the secondary school. We are attending a meeting before they start back and I'm presuming we'll find out that sort of thing then.