Schools: Social Distancing

I suggest, during these times, that class sizes be reduced to 20 with a morning and afternoon session focussing on Literacy and Numeracy allowing for social distancing Mon-Thur. On a Friday teachers can use their non class contact time (NCCT) to meet, assess and plan.

If a Friday is set aside with no children attending NCCT teacher numbers could be freed to manage classes. Probationer teachers could use the Friday as their planning day, requiring no cover for their classes. Principal teachers may require to be class committed to meet staff to child ratio requirements.

As the focus will primarily be on Literacy and Numeracy; gym and dining halls will not be required for physical exercise and therefore could be used as additional classroom spaces. Lunch could be eaten in classrooms.

During the times children are not in school they could complete the other areas of the curriculum which their teachers would set - similar to the way it is currently being done.

I believe this could be a manageable solution for schools, parents and employers.

Why the contribution is important

I am an experienced primary teacher in Glasgow.

by mckerrall on May 09, 2020 at 08:29AM

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Average rating: 1.8
Based on: 8 votes

Comments

  • Posted by sunshinethrough May 09, 2020 at 09:02

    My sons rural P7 class is operating very well (for my son at least) online. His teacher is doing an amazing job keeping the class running. Not sure if his class could operate much better in school at this point in time. My son is getting a full day of teaching at present. His class has 20 pupils, clearly it would need to be halved to allow for social distancing should he be required to return to school. A hybrid flexible system whereby teachers work with the pupils of their particular school to introduce options relevant to their area and their pupils. ie Some teachers could chose to work from school and supervise some kids in school while some teachers could work from home and provide work loads for pupils both within schools AND those choosing to continue to work from home. For example, if a child needed /wanted to be in the school environment they could be schooled virtually by their teacher while being supervised by teaching assistants or a teacher working with some of their pupils in school could also send out virtual schooling to those pupils choosing to work from home. Each school will know what is best for their teachers and pupils and community. Once the NHS has this epidemic in hand and normal NHS services are resumed, give schools the freedom to choose how best to serve their pupils and their community. There is no one size fits all.

  • Posted by AtHome86 May 09, 2020 at 09:27

    I am a teacher from an open-plan school and there is no feasible way to educate all of my class in my classroom with social distancing measures in place due to its size. The nature of the curriculum is one that includes play, is kinesthetic, is collaborative and not one that is conducive to this 'keep apart, sit down' idea that people seem to think will be easy to implement. I have a high number of pupils with additional learning needs and it would be irresponsible of me as their teacher to expect them to sit still and apart all day, not allowing them to leave to eat their lunch, not allowing them to play, not being able to participate in PE, and so on. This to me is far more detrimental than educating them remotely for now, until the government is more secure in their ability to treat and control the virus.

    I am also worried for my own safety as well as the safety of my colleagues. Many hubs at the minute do not have access to PPE, and with their being a shortage in care homes and the NHS, I don't think there has been a realistic approach taken with this matter. Not to mention staff shortages for staff with underlying conditions or pregnancy that won't be in school, redundancies that are already in place with support staff. This means that schools will already be under enormous pressure to provide care that is equitable and inclusive to all pupils, parents and stakeholders, and that is on top of the added mental pressures on the pupils' and staff's wellbeing with social distancing measures having to be introduced in our classrooms.

  • Posted by Aham25 May 09, 2020 at 11:22

    As a teacher my room has been measured to have a max of 8 children social distancing if we use a spare room as an overflow...just curious as to how this would work with teachers who have young primary aged children for childcare on a friday! On paper it seems the ideal approach if you do not take into consideration that most of the teaching profession now have dependents at home

  • Posted by Aham25 May 09, 2020 at 11:24

    Also to add a lot of principal teachers were removed from primary schools so not every school has a big leadership team for cover.

  • Posted by CLP May 09, 2020 at 12:14

    I think it will be impossible for nursery and primary-aged children to practice social distancing at school - and expecting them to do so would cause anxiety for children, and extra stress for teachers. My children are aged 7 and 9, and to be 'with' their friends, but unable to be close to them, would be detrimental to their emotional well-being. They are children - they live in the moment, they play and share - not allowing them to interact will be incredibly difficult for teachers, and very hard on children. Having moved to Scotland from a country where classrooms really are "sit down at a desk and stay still" I know the impact this had on my own children - especially one of them who has additional learning needs. I think it would be better to support home-learning for now, or to have virtual classes, until more is known and it is safe to send our children back to school.

  • Posted by Lucy1980 May 09, 2020 at 17:57

    This plan simply does not work consistently across all schools in Scotland due to a variety of reasons, staffing, class sizes, school size and space, playground area etc.

    How can a class of 33 be reduced to 20 all of a sudden? Where do the other 13 go? To another class? Where is that class? My school is very large and doesn’t have any spare rooms and we definitely don’t have enough spare SLT or McCrone teachers to cover the ‘extra’ children.

    Due to class sizes, it’s likely groups of children will come back in 8s due to 2m distancing in the average classroom.

    Perhaps rotas of morning / afternoon groups, or a group each day for the full day.
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