My school is going back next week, here's the game plan...

[FrencheFancie]

NC for this post.

I teach secondary in a European country. Certain levels for primary went back last week, from Monday, year 7 and year 8 will be back. A couple of key points about reopening here in general :

• For secondary schools, students, teachers and staff must wear masks. These marks have been provided by the government.
• If the school has not received their masks, they do not need to open until they received them. I received my two washable masks when I went to a planning meeting this morning.
• If the school does not have sufficient staff to ensure teaching or enough cleaners to ensure strict sanitary conditions, they don't open.
• Each school has had to submit their hygiene policy to an independent commission for review, which then autorises them to open.
• If the local MP decides the situation is too unsafe, the school doesn't open.
• Other year levels will be open for review at the end of the month.
• There can only be 15 students per class (we have classes of 30-40).
• Any member of staff who is in a risk group or who lives with someone in a risk group, will stay at home.

For my school, this is what they've put in place until the end of the month. The system will need to be changed (probably alternate days depending on year level) if we eventually welcome back other levels in June.

• We will follow our normal timetable, each class will be split in two and teachers will teach half the class for 25 min and then the other half for 25 min.
• Disinfecting kit for teachers in each class (hand gel, spray, wipes)
• Students spread out in class and attributed a seat.
• No exchanging material (pens, books, etc.)
• We are advised to privilege oral work as much as possible and to limit photocopies
• Cold lunch provided by the canteen and students to eat on the playground.
• Online classes via teams according to our usual class time for those who are able (taking into consideration childcare constraints, etc.), for the levels that are not back yet. We are now able to use the rooms and equipment at school.
• For teams, we're asked for an hour per week and it has very clearly been stated to parents that the teachers have all manner of personal contraints, as well as physical classes for those who are going back next week. I personally will be using a half day where I usually have those levels to do the video lessons at home.
• For the students who are remaining at home, we need to provide a brief written summary which details the steps of the lesson and any documents we used in the class (worksheets, etc.). Parents have been told that the student will have less work going forward as we're now back in class.
• Staff who cannot come in will give written work for the students to do during that hour of class.
• Students in the half of the class not being taught by a teacher, will be under adult supervision in the class next door.

I think that's the gist ! I'll admit to being scandalised at the idea of cutting classes in two when I first heard... but we'll see how it plays out !

How is it working for the youngest children? Will there be any kind of social distancing?

Do you have enough spare classrooms to split all classes in half?

@Twinklelittlestar1

For primary, they've said that traditional social distancing measures are unrealistic, i.e. masks, children at desks all day, etc. Teachers are encouraged to favorise individual activities, which the children can do in their own space. Some of the things I've seen are painting (with individual brushes and paint), music clapping along to the beat, story time well spread out on the floor, aerobics style PE whilst well spaced out on the courtyard... There's been a lot less uptake in primary however (although it varies from school to school) and teachers have reported classes of less than 10, so it makes distancing easier.

This is all what I've gleaned from primary colleagues, I have very little to do with primary myself, so will admit to not being entirely up-to-date with the latest information or practices.

@Selfsettling3 Yes, for the moment we do because only year 7 and year 8 are in. At this age they're in set form classes, so we've used the year 8 and 9 building and it's the teachers who shift at class changeover time. The students are used to this, as it's what we did before (aside from science prac, music, tech). If we later have other levels come in, the system will have to change, most likely to get certains years in on a specific day as we won't have enough space.

What will the "waiting" half of the class do?

I'd be interested to know which European country. It's hard to compare our situations when the current one may be very different. Interesting insight though thanks

Your normal class sizes are even larger than ours!

How are parents reacting to these changes?

@Twinklelittlestar1 I’d guess the OPs user name might be a hint

Seems like a heavy workload for you as you have to provide for those staying at home.

I'm also curious to know what the kids waiting in the first half of the lesson will do. Those waiting in the second half would presumably be ok, you could set them something.

@Twinklelittlestar1 have a look at my name

I agree, it's hard to compare when the systems are very different? I'm not sure how this is going to pan out in reality, but it's going to be a very different "normal" on Monday.

@StrawberryJam200 They'll either do a small independent task that is set by the teacher for that hour, or if that doesn't happen (may be difficult for some subjects, i.e. PE) they'll crack on with homework from other subjects. My plan (MFL teacher) goes a little like... group not with me does a written task for 20 min, writes approx 10-12 lines. They then present their work in the first 5 min with me. Other half then gets on with the written work and I listen to their written productions at the beginning of the next hour. Or maybe it'll be a set of exercises, reading a text and doing questions, etc.

The HOD said that we could play it how we wanted and that the first few days would be us all adjusting and seeing what exactly will be realistic in the time given.

@ineedaholidaynow parents are largely very understanding and have been on the whole lovely about the work we've done during the confinement. We've of course had a few who have taken a leaf from the MN handbook and sent some horrible emails... But happily my school has always been incredibly firm when dealing with families and SLT has said to pass any difficult parents to them so they can deal with the reply.

I'm à teacher in the same country as you!

We have less than 25% of our yr 7 and 8s coming back.

School will only be open for mornings, no canteen, everyone out by 12. I received 7 single-use masks (not wrapped, just stuffed in an envelope) and the school has got 2 litres of hand gel which will be divided into bottles for each of the 4 classrooms.

Our pupils, whether in class or staying home will be expected to keep up with distance learning. When they are in school they will either bring their own work, or take part in 'lessons'.

As the groups will be mixed up, teachers are expected to have some sort of lesson plan, but also help the others with homework (while respecting the 50 page protocol document) Some subject teachers (Spanish, Italian, German) will be teaching pupils they will never have in class.

It's going to be, ummm... Interesting?

How do you both (as in op and other teacher in France) feel about wearing face masks?

I can't imagine where the money would come from to pay cleaners to be there all day. We teach from printed extracts because we have no budget for books.

NCTDN, personally I hate wearing a mask and can't imagine how unpleasant it will be to teach wearing one. Especially as a language teacher-seeing the lips move/mouth/jaw position helps pupils learn to pronounce stuff.
If I have understood the guidelines we can actually take them off once in the classroom as long as we stay well away from the kids

Myhipsdontlie, in France our 'agents' are mostly civil servants like teachers. They generally are present in schools all day as they also help in the canteen etc. Their working days will actually be shorter, but more intense undoubtedly. It's a very different system.

The cleaner who deals with my room is in her 70s

@SagelyNodding bonjour !! Yeah, I've already thought about the important of the kids seeing our mouths move... Teachers have been told that we can take off our masks if the students are having problems understanding us speak, but only if we are at the front of the class, well away from any of the students. Even then, we've been asked to set an example where possible and wear then as much as possible.

I wore one for the first time yesterday and was surprised at how uncomfortable it is... it's going to be hell in summer !

@NCTDN People mostly see it as the minimum necessary to protect staff and pupils. We agree that it's far from ideal for a number of reasons, hard to hear, can be unsettling to students, hot and uncomfortable... but what's the alternative? Either we don't go back, which is unrealistic long term, or we find a way to make it as safe as possible, whilst remaining realistic to the fact that the virus will not stop at the school gates, no matter what measures we put in place. There are already rumours about what the hell this situation is going to look like in September... so if we can get the students used to a different system now, it'll be better.

@MyHipsDontLieUnfortunately oh no, I can't imagine she'll be back in anytime soon... Did she do all the classrooms in the school? Or is there someone who can take over for your class?