How many children are there currently in your primary classrooms?

[oldwhyno]

Parents/Carers/Staff etc, what is the maximum number of R, Y1, Y6 children that you are currently fitting into classrooms that would have originally held 30ish?

Is the school fitting the maximum bubble of 15 into one room, accepting that it isn't possible to spread desks out 2m?

Or are they sticking to 2m for desks and only fitting 8/9 in a room?

Thanks!

There are 7 children in my grand daughters classroom. I think this is more to do with the majority of parents not wanting their children to attend school at the minute.

We have 28 children in each of these year groups- we have split them into 2 so can hold 14 children per bubble. We have 26/28 back for year 6, 24/28 year 1s and 24/28 receptions :) we have allocated the students who haven't come back their bubble so if they decide to come back they can whenever x

No real social distancing happening in our reception and nursery bubbles, both able to have 15 in them, although not all have come back yet.

The yr 6s who can cope better with the idea of it are on spaced out desks in the small hall and another larger space, they are 2m apart and luckily it can accommodate all 15.

Thanks all.

@WoWsers16, so is the classroom for the 14 Y6's in one bubble big enough to space desks 2m? Or is that relaxed to get the children in? I'm particularly interested in the way people are determining max classroom capacity.

They are apart but not 2 metres- it's in our risk assessment that we will cater for 14 but parents have to understand this will not cater 2 metres for children (it's over 1 metre) but the distance does count for teachers.

13-14 per classroom. In some classrooms this gives them 2m, in others I suspect not.

DD (key worker place) has up to 9 in her classroom.

Maximum of 7 children plus 2 adults, all sitting on the floor spaced apart (as close to 2m as space will allow). Not enough physical space to have desks for 7 as well, not enough physical space to have more than 7 chn sitting spaced on the floor!
(The classroom could never seat 30 in the first place pre-covid and we would spill into the corridor area when all sat at desks at the same time, anyway)!

Max 7 in each class. In childcare for key workers there is max 5 in a room due to size.

this is interesting, there do seem to be two different approaches. Limiting based on area to stick to 2m (even if this might not be 100% during the course of the day), and limiting based on max bubble size 15, and accepting that 2m isn't possible in many classrooms.

Is this because the DFE guidance is really ambiguous? Have I missed something or is that what it comes down to? It makes a potentially huge difference (up to around ~2x) to the total capacity at schools.

Whether you're in the "we need more kids back in school or the "we need minimise risk at all costs" camp, it strikes me that something like this should have more DFE clarity, so schools aren't having to make the decision based on their own risk assessments. Schools should obviously have a degree of flexibility but not something that potentially makes a 2x difference to capacity.

12 in my DDs year 1 class "bubble", they've got 2 per table but they're big round tables. They also have 3 members of staff so it makes it up to the 15 limit. Similar numbers in YR and YR6 I believe.

Personally I think we've done it as we want the kids back- the more we can have the better - and it makes sense that , especially the little ones, they are going to get closer at some point in the day. Also I think if you're in the same room for 6 hours a day being 2 metres apart isn't going to be as effective!
So we have done it to get the kids back- but still being as strict as we can to make sure we are all safe x

We have a lot of vulnerable kids and families that are in the critically vulberable/shielding category in our demographic so Head is cautious of not overloading each room with the max bubble size allowed to keep risk minimal to encourage as many chn back in as poss. We also have a lot of NHS worker parents who were redeployed to covid wards etc, so again, Head being cautious to minimise risks of cross contamination and encourage as many chn back as poss.

Classes of 15 were offered, the 2m rule could not be met. Only taken Years 1 and 6. Year 1 we started off with 64/90 on the first day, now up to 81/90. Year 6 are on a rota, last week we had 38/40 in. So far this week 32. We have six keyworker classes on top of this. Not enough staff available for reception, especially as a lot of staff for that year are shielding/vulnerable. All windows and doors are wide open, so some resorted to putting the heating on one day last week.

My year 1 dc's class is 7 children, 2 teaching assistants and the teacher.

our head has stuck very firmly to the 2m rule, and so we have only 8 pupils per room.

Part of the problem is the very poor communication from DfE and government that has not be concise enough., thus allowing for different views of what is reasonable.
The latest guidance is clearer that there is no expectation that 2 metre distancing will take place in primary schools and that splitting the class in two,so that there is 15 maximum is the preferred way to go. The other priorities around hand washing etc
That is what we have done as a school, keeping the maximum distance of 2 metres between the teacher's desk and the pupils. Practical use over the last two weeks has shown that this is both practical and reasonable with year 6 pupils. Other younger pupils who are in our bubbles for vulnerable and key worker children have been less good at practising social distancing which is no great surprise but it works in that these pupils have been in lock down for 12 weeks and there has not been any reported case of Covid in the school in either pupils or staff.

Ours is currently around 6-8 per bubble (yr R & yr 1 bubble (2 bubbles per ye)), 1x teacher and 1x TA per bubble - far better staff to pupil ratio than ever before, and the kids are thriving on it. Keyworker groups as well. Very low risk area, no local cases at all. School appears very risk adverse. A swift, loud and clear clarification of the DfE guidance mentioned above would be very important, so that in a low risk area more (or even more yr groups) could potentially go back in.

Max 10 per bubble, I had half that in today.

We have 14 in our Key Worker bubble. The children are not 2m away from each other.
We have less in our returning year groups, under 10 in each, due to uptake from parents so they are more spread out.

7 and no formal social distancing in my youngest child's class.

@admission I agree, the DFE guidance left too much up to interpretation.

bit of a topic on newsnight right now.

There are 7 in DS's Y1 bubble, a teacher and a TA. They are doing full social distancing with desks 2m apart etc. I assume they could take up to 15 per bubble, but only 50% of his (normal) class returned to school. Obviously the desks wouldn't be 2m apart if there were 15 children in.

Planned for max of 10 but working on 8.

Have an additional staffroom to allow 2m spacing for lunch break.

Adhering to 2 ms as much as possible. Children have been fantastic.

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