Social distancing reception and year 1

[Elderflowervioletrose]

Hi
At our school all children are expected to social distance at all times. This applies to reception and year 1 children too. It has been very hard to keep them apart and telling them to keep their distance at break times is especially difficult.

I was wondering if your schools are doing this also? And if anyone is having success with it and if so what are your tips? I am finding it really hard with the reception children.

Thank you 😊

Ours aren’t distancing in their bubbles.

I thought the expectation was that children at this age did NOT socially distance, though there was minimal moving over to desks/helping with work and children were reminded of hygiene etc.?
I have a Y3 with SEN and he's supposed to be socially distancing "as far as possible" which means they choose football or dodgeball for break time rather than tig, they have their work at their desks etc. but nobody tells him to "get back" if he comes close to a teacher to show them a spider while doing a bug hunt.

I’m a TA in a Y1 bubble, kids back next week. They will be expected to socially distance at all times, as will we from them.
Also interested to hear any tips on how to achieve this!

I'm in a Year 1 bubble. The guidance specifically says you can't expect the youngest year groups in primary to socially distance all the time. Ours have their own desk, own box of resources etc. They're told not to touch (eg no tag) and to try to stand further apart etc but at the end of the day, they're 5 and 6! They're going to get closer than 2m to each other at times!

Our head is insisting the children and staff in each bubble social distance at all times. They have their own desks/resources etc. Lunches are sat social distanced, break times, lining up before and after school, desks are as far apart as possible. Only one child is allowed in toilet at a time, it has to be cleaned between uses.

I read the guidance also and see that social distancing is not required for Reception and year 1. I was very surprised that we have to do this.

I personally don’t think this is good for the children and school is no longer the lovely place it once was.

Day 3 today and it was hard. I feel sorry for the children because I am constantly nagging them to keep their distance. Sitting at desks was manageable until today. I think the novelty has worn off for a lot of the children already.

This is going to be a long 6 weeks trying to keep 15 reception children away from each other / sat at a desk. I hope it gets better because at the moment they are getting minimal education as everything takes so long. We only have 2 toilets so all the hand washing takes forever.

I really wonder why so many parents have sent their 4 and 5 year olds back. Especially the ones that didn’t have to. We have 15 out of a class of 18 back. The head was surprised so many returned given many families in our affluent area only have one working parent.

Ours aren’t social distancing at all in their bubbles. It must be incredibly hard.

Poor children! And staff.

Barely any distancing in bubbles. Sat at opposite end of one double table fir lunch and writing and on carpet spots about 1m apart for story etc

Also we don’t distance from them particularly. I administered first aid today and the child got a rub on the back and a stroke of the hair rather than the usual hug I would give them when upset.

We are also reception and are continuous provision all day and only sit at tables for snack, and lunch

All the schools in our local area are expecting social distancing in all classes, I wonder whether it is our local authority advice. We are in an area of low cases anyway, so I don’t understand why the schools have gone down this route. It is depressing and I don’t enjoy work at the moment.
I had a little boy upset today and I couldn’t give him a cuddle. I had to talk to him from a distance and try to calm him down- he is 5! It was heartbreaking. I don’t know if I want to continue teaching if this continues. I have no idea if colleagues feel the same way about the distancing. We have been told it is to keep the children and staff safe so I can’t go against my schools instructions

We have suspended continuous provision and are now formal and socially distanced. It's gruelling. Everything takes ages, there's no joy, I'm constantly watching the clock so we don't miss our slots for play/lunch/home.

@Elderflowervioletrose we've been told it's an expectation too! I'm a TA in a y1 bubble working with another TA - our first day with the children in - only 6 children - I got home and burst into tears it was completely exhausting and completely alien. It took so long to get anywhere - line up one at a time, wash hands, toilet one at time taken by an adult who has to check that the toilets were empty first. The children completed one maths worksheet all day - we weren't allowed to touch the sheet after it was used by the children so they just put it in their trays - we had to stand 2m away trying to help - it felt awful. The children seemed to cope ok with it all - but must have been tired of the constant reminders and they did keep asking when they'd see their teacher (we''re both ks2 TAs). I don't know how I'm going to do this especially as our numbers are increasing next week 😞

I said to a member of SLT how difficult it was to socially distance the children and she just replied "keep reminding them and they'll soon settle in to the new routine!" 😞

@MossWalk us too - so many different time slots for different outside areas even 2 x 15min time slots we're allowed to use the photocopier!

our reception/nursery are not expected to 'socially distance' its not really feasible
staff are expected to -from each other- and not get close to the kids or them to us

We gave up with SD with key worker children. I've seen from photos of my child's class - they are not SDing. Meant we could go and play after school in the park (not on equipment, tree den playing mostly). Parents stood 5m apart, kids basically rolled all over each other.

We're not expecting our nursery, reception or Y1 children to be 2M apart at all times. We're in bubbles with about 10 children in each.

I have a reception group. We have areas of provision - all easily wiped down. Children stick with a partner and move round AOPs when it's time, washing hands between each area. Tables and surfaces wiped between uses. They have spots morales out on the carpet but no room for that to be 2M apart so just as far between as we could manage.

I do think it's impossible to keep children 2M SD at all times without impacting on their wellbeing.

We have two key worker bubbles, mixed ages from preschool to year 6 due to siblings being kept together, two year 1 bubbles with some younger siblings, and a reception bubble with a younger sibling. Two members of staff in each bubble. We are NOT social distancing within our own bubble, but each bubble cannot go near another bubble. Staggered start and leave times, so parents don’t mix when arriving, staggered breaks and designated areas to play in. But all the children are playing and sitting together as normal, lots of laughter, music playing in the classrooms as they practice singing for the Big sing.

It’s been hugely successful and, due to parents raving on their group chats about how happy their child is now they are back, we now have a second wave of reception and year ones joining bubbles, and possibly a third key worker bubble starting next week. There is no need to socially distance within the bubble, there’s some stories and power points produced by the gov about this to share with the children to explain why is safe to not socially distance in the bubble. It’s a shame some schools aren’t following the guidance

Our desks are apart, but minimal social distancing otherwise. They just can’t! They play virus at break times! Lots of hand washing and no mixing of bubbles.

No social distancing within bubbles at all for EYFS. Year 1 have a little more formality and have their own desks but they too are encouraged to play with their bubble at break and lunchtime.

In my Year One class the tables are set set apart and lining up is distanced. We keep reminding them to separate when they get too close at playtime. It's not a problem yet as we only have between five and six children in at the moment. We have explained the reasoning and they comply pretty well.