We must make sure classes are safe places before pupils return

We miss the children and we want them back! However, as we begin to consider what a return to the classroom setting will look like in the next academic year, parents, children and teachers must be assured that schools are safe spaces before this can happen.

Today we have published a survey carried out among our membership which elicited an unprecedented reaction, with over 2,500 responses from teachers across school settings.

This alone demonstrates the passion Northern Ireland teachers have for their vocation and their drive to get learning back to normal, or at least a new kind of normal, for children.

While the priority is to do that safely, there is a real positivity among staff about achieving this as school is, after all, where children and teachers need to be.

Teachers who cannot be in school because of personal health issues or because they are following the Government instructions to shield a vulnerable family member will continue teaching online, as all have been doing for the last nine weeks.

However, we want to assure our parents that we are working tirelessly towards getting children back to school and to that end we are in almost daily contact with the Education Department and Education Authority as together we plot the way ahead.

It is a collaborative approach we welcome and one which will deliver the best result for pupils and teachers.

However, although we all want to see children back in class, this will involve a balancing act between their learning and their health and well-being, for what happens in schools in terms of the virus will inevitably be reflected in the wider community, in the children’s families — in our families.

Young people need to be in class — but not at the expense of health and lives — too many have been lost already.

The last thing we want is for schools to open too soon or unprepared and then have to close again, throwing families into yet more turmoil.

The collaborative approach the Department and the EA are taking with us, will enable us all to be assured that areas of concern are being thoroughly investigated and resolved.

These areas include social distancing in schools, hygiene and the availability of hand washing facilities and the availability and/ or necessity for protective equipment like masks and gowns.

Teachers, after all, are at the chalk face daily and they know best what is feasible — and not feasible — in their schools.

❝ Young people need to be in class, but not at the expense of lives, too many have been lost already

Stephen Mccord is president of the Ulster Teachers’ Union