How has coronavirus changed life in schools?

We have been back in school for a few weeks now and it is fair to say that for most students and teachers, school life is looking rather different to this time twelve months ago.

For me, it is really interesting to see, as my own experience working in a school is very different to that of my own children, who are in two different schools.  Each of those three schools are doing things differently to each other and differently to how things were before.

My daughter has just started middle school, a school with three year groups and probably just under 500 students with over 150 in each year group.  With smaller numbers, it is easier to manage year group ‘bubbles’, each year group is assigned an area outside for break times and before school.  Start and finish times along with break times have been staggered and students are in year group bubbles on the buses too.

Pupils here are mostly taught in tutor groups and they stay in the same classroom for the majority of lessons with minimal moving around. This has been the hardest thing for my daughter as she is sat by the same person all the time which has made it quite difficult to make new friends, but luckily, she loves the school and seems really happy. Break and lunch times are staggered and each year group has a set area for those times to avoid the groups mixing.

Masks don’t seem to be common there.  She hasn’t seen any children wearing masks, instead, teachers and teaching assistants wear the clear visors when walking around the classroom. She is coming home on the bus for the first time, which she loves, and she has to wear a mask on the bus all the time, but she hasn’t worn a mask during the school day. Technically she is under 11, so she doesn’t need to and the school doesn’t seem to be encouraging them to wear them.

On the buses, the year groups are sent on separately and all sit separately with lots of space between students.

My sons’ high school is a much bigger school, with nearly 1300 students aged from 13 to 18.  This is much harder to manage but they too have tried to separate year bubbles.  They are taught within certain blocks, moving to and from classrooms within a restricted area unless it is a specialist subject such as DT or music. The teachers move to the students, which must be really difficult for the teachers having to carry everything they need around with them, but it seems to be working.

As with the middle school, start, finish times and break times are staggered to try and stop year groups mixing together.  Each year has a different entrance and exit method but once out of school. There are also no assemblies in either school either.

Both boys say that they haven’t seen many people wearing masks.  Some members of staff wear them whilst moving around the school and some students, but it is not common.

The school I work in is completely different. Rather than ask the staff move to the students, the students move from classroom to classroom via a one way system. This seems to work well on the whole, but there are some areas of the school where lack to space does mean that there are a huge number of students in a small corridor and that can be tricky.

There are cleaning stations in every room, hand sanitiser on the wall as you enter and exit the classroom and all tables are sanitised and wiped down in between lessons.  The cleaning staff are also working hard to clean and sanitise areas in between lessons. The students are already settling into the routine of sanitising hands ant the beginning and end of each lesson and they seem to enjoy being involved in wiping and cleaning the tables too.

We also have special bins out in the corridors (snot bins as some kids are calling them as they are yellow!). These are for students who sneeze or cough, they are being encouraged to go out into the corridor with a tissue, catch it, bin it and then sanitise their hands on the way back into the class.

The biggest change I have seen in school is that equipment can no longer be shared.  This is really tricky as there are often a number of students who don’t arrive in school with the equipment for the day.  Teachers are now discouraged to share anything and if in the case of emergency, a student has to borrow something, it has to be cleaned afterwards. Books have to be quarantined before marking and text books are split into use by year groups to avoid cross-contamination.

The teachers all have squares taped around them at the front of the class and many don’t leave that square and students can’t enter into it. A lot of teachers find that hard as they want to walk around to see what the students are doing, some still do and put on the visors when they do.

The cleaning that is going on is quite impressive.  Extra cleaning staff have been taken on and there is a lot of extra cleaning and sanitising going on in between lessons and at break times. It is a mammoth task but it seems to be working.

Practical subjects are also having to make lots of changes.  They can’t have endless students handing things, so there has to be a system where supplies are kept in year groups to keep to the year group bubble. We are still having year group assemblies, these take place once a week and a limited range of clubs will be starting soon but again, these will be year group based.

The similarities with all three schools seem to be around PE.  In all three schools, they are asked to go to school in PE kit on days they have PE as the changing rooms are closed.

Life in schools is certainly nothing like it was before.  But somehow the students and staff all seem to have adapted well.  Students are now sanitising in and out of classrooms without having to be reminded. Staff are having to adapt so many things; the way they teach, the way they mark, the way they use equipment and the way they set homework.  Many teachers have remarked that using an online homework site like Show My Homework is brilliant as now many homework are being done or submitted online which makes life a lot easier for teachers.  This is one thing that I think will continue even beyond the pandemic.

Whatever happens over the next few months, I think the decision to go back to school was a good one.  I know that all of my kids needed the stability and normality of school back in their lives and overall, it has been a positive start to the year.  They don’t seem to be too phased by all of the changes in school, they are just accepting all as the ‘new normal’ and getting on with it.  I hope that whatever the next few months holds in terms of the virus, schools manage to stay open thanks to all of the new systems that are in place.