By Emma McGladdery
Summer is officially over, and as September 7th grows closer, students across the UK are preparing to return to school after the decision was made in June to make the return to school for the new year mandatory.
Despite a few exceptions, the government have made it clear that parents may face fines if they don’t adhere to the rule of having their kids return to school.
Ministers have expressed that the return to school is ‘vital’ for children’s health and wellbeing, and while that’s an agreeable and an important factor to consider; there is still a high risk of COVID-19 transmission among pupils and staff who will be spending hours at a time in close proximity with each other.
New Rules
New guidance information and rules have been set in place, and most that will have back to school season looking quite different this year. These include:
- The use of face coverings in schools, particularity in areas that remain in localised lockdowns.
This guidance applies to secondary schools and has been implemented to support hallway crowds, locker rooms or smaller teaching spaces where social distancing stands at the level of physically impossible.
- The limiting of music, performance, drama classes and physical education.
- Support for students who are shielding or self-isolating.
- Managing confirmed cases of COVID-19 among the school community
This means taking the necessary steps of safety and potential temporary closure if a staff member, student or a cluster of these persons test positive.
New Challenges
Amid the fears and anxieties of sending children back to school, however, there are important factors to consider regarding disadvantaged children and those with specialist needs.
Children across the UK will now have to get used to an entirely new system as COVID-19 risks take away a handful of practical subjects such as Drama, P.E. and Music Studies.
The new school term will also see social differences too. Classroom layouts will be adjusted to minimise face-to-face contact, assemblies in year groups or whole school set-up’s will be banned and communal prayer between students will likely come to a halt.
Lunch and break times will also be designated to classes, as so they do not overlap with each other, and the government has suggested that schools use the ‘bubble system’.
This means that classes will remain together as one, and won’t be separated into other teaching groups. This also means that they will spend lunchtimes and break times together, lowering the risk of transmission between other bubbles. This becomes just another factor that children will have to get used to rather quickly.
As we learn more about COVID-19, we learn that it is unpredictable yet manageable if everybody continues to act smart, by following the guidelines and keeping safe.
Plan B
With all this in mind, there is also the ‘Plan B’ system. This means that the government will consider other means of teaching if a second wave or large spike in local cases were to occur.
Hopefully, ‘Plan B’ will never have to come into action, but it does include talks of ‘blended teaching’ methods if used. This would mean children would attend school for some subjects, and stay home for others, taking a blended approach.
The other discussed plan is the rota system, which would have children attend school on a two-weekly basis (two weeks in school, two weeks learning at home).
Although these plans are idealistic – hopefully they will never have to come into use.
Even with the fears and risk of spreading COVID-19 when children are sent back to school, there are also realities that have to be faced about how students are expected to learn in such a tumultuous time.
Although understandably it’s unnerving to see such large groups gathering once more, the risk of children becoming seriously ill with COVID-19 is incredibly low.
Professor Chris Whitty says that children have an extremely low risk of becoming dangerously ill and an ‘exceptionally small risk of dying’. This statement is something to consider if you are feeling anxious about schools reopening.
However, this does nothing to asuage fears of community transmission, as just becuase kids are less likely to get sick from covid, it does not mean they are any less likely to spread the disease. Beyond that, most people would likely not take that chance regardless.
The bottom line is, while it will never truly be safe to send large groups of children back to school, there are logistical realities that have to be faced in terms of how long kids can learn from home. We will simply have to wait and see come September, how it all shakes out.