Schools prepare for the new 'nearly normal'

Friday 29 May 2020

School staff have a lot of work to do next week to prepare for pupils returning on 8 June - with a warning that it won't be 'back to normal' for anyone, as pupils and staff instead return to a new 'nearly normal' learning environment.

Senior Education Advisor, Laurie Baker and Education, Sport and Culture President, Deputy Matt Fallaize, have been closely involved with the planning so far and both said a lot remains to be finalised before the majority of pupils return to the classroom for the first time since 20 March.

"We're making it clear that things are going to feel different and that's important for phase 4," said Ms Baker.

"Our public health team has worked really closely with us and actually they've used significant pieces of information from the New Zealand model, particularly with regard to social distancing. So we acknowledge and you guys will too that schools are really complex social organisations and we've had to look really carefully at how we can maintain sufficient social distancing to meet the needs of public health but also allow us to create a welcoming space for our staff and our children.

"There will be some changes, but they may not look quite so draconian as perhaps they look in some other jurisdictions."

Primary schools in France have resumed with children having been assigned "play spaces," and this is hands down the most dystopian thing I've ever seen pic.twitter.com/zmKeDHmltd

— Austen Allred (@Austen) May 13, 2020

The decision was only made last week to allow all pupils to return on 8 June, after ESC initially planned for only primary pupils to return to the classroom on a phased basis.

Deputy Fallaize said the situation did change quickly, but they're still confident they will be ready to welcome pupils back.

"As the public health advice evolved last week, this was really quite key to the committee being able to decide that all schools could fully reopen," he said. 

"What has happened now is, the position with the public health advice is that we should make efforts to maintain social distancing where possible, but it is acknowledged that it is not possible at all times in a school environment, and we could have all students back in school at the same time so the change of that advice was what allowed us to go from the phased return that we were looking at initially to all schools fully reopening on the 8th."

Pictured: Ms Laurie Baker, Senior Education Advisor, and Deputy Matt Fallaize, President of the Committee for Education, Sport and Culture. 

ESC and Public Health will continue to liaise over school safety - and any new confirmed cases of covid-19 could lead to schools being closed again.

Ms Baker said if that does happen, they will be able to respond very quickly.

"We've been given that message very clearly by Nicky - the expectation will be that we can move as quickly as we've had to move in the past if that was necessary and actually I think our schools have responded really positively to the shift in distance learning so we've got some confidence that we've got some good systems and structures in place."

Deputy Fallaize and Ms Baker agreed that schooling will be kept under review even after the summer holidays as the wider situation with the corona virus pandemic becomes more clear.

"What we're going to need to continue to do is work really closely with with Dr Brink and her team and think about the things that are possible, safe and practical for our children and young people and for our staff and be able to adapt that as the situation evolves across the island," said Ms Baker.

It's previously been said that the dates of the school holidays won't be amended as staff need the time off as many have been working continuously since the pandemic reached our shores - with schools staying open through the Easter holiday for the children of essential workers and vulnerable students.

Around 500 students have continued attending lessons throughout the lockdown, with more than 6,000 receiving their education through distance learning.

Ms Baker said it was therefore important that school staff had this week off for half term, before spending next week preparing for all students to return to school.

Pictured: Classrooms could look quite different for a long time, but the situation will be kept under review. 

"We were really keen actually when we were talking to the Committee to find a way to allow teachers to have that proper rest over half term, because we're asking a lot of them as they move into the next stage too."

Deputy Fallaize said it has been a very demanding time for all school staff.

"Quite a lot of them will have worked through the Easter holidays because you remember that we had schools open for children of essential workers and vulnerable children, and then some teachers have been in school and having to maintain distance learning.

"Distance learning has been a great success really when you consider that we started from a blank sheet of paper and in a very short space of time, Laurie and her colleagues worked with school leaders to get in place the distance learning programme while at the same time maintaining the schools being open physically for the children who needed them."

Pictured top: 'Mooove back' stickers are available from Dowding Signs.