NEW BACK WILL MAKE
PUPILS will be taught on a week on/week off basis with scaled-down class sizes and playgrounds split into zones under plans being considered.
The idea, being studied by the Government’s advisors, sees pupils alternate a week of home learning with a week back at school.
Teachers at high-risk such as those with underlying health conditions, would not attend school but would support remote lessons. Smaller class sizes would allow social distancing, with one suggestion being half a class rotating for lessons each week.
The proposals apply to children of all ages, although in Europe younger pupils have been returning first.
No decisions have yet been made on reopening schools but sources say a blueprint is being drawn up. It comes as experts make an urgent call for children to go back to school and be allowed to play together.
They fear the lockdown is causing long-term damage to educational, emotional and social development.
Experts say children are at low risk of complications from the virus, and some recent studies have also suggested they are also low-risk transmitters.
The balance between keeping children safe and making sure they get educated has proved difficult for ministers, but one specialist said he felt the pendulum has swung in favour of a classroom return.
Professor John Jerrim, of the Institute of Education, University College London, said: “I am very worried about the huge implications that lockdown is having on a generation of children – not only of school age but of nursery age when social and emotional development is key.
“Locking up toddlers for two months is not a good thing as this is the point where they learn to play together. Children are not particularly impacted by coronavirus and there are questions around whether they transmit the virus to others at the same rate. We need the schools going back. There is a clear downward trend of new infections. We are at a point where the other aspects of education and school have become more important than their risk of catching the virus and spreading it.
“Each day that goes by there is less of a case for saying the virus remains the main threat compared to the potential long-term damage lockdown is doing to their lives.
“This applies to all children as well as those who are vulnerable and in violent households.
“The pendulum has swung. I cannot see a strong argument for not starting the ball rolling in June. But going back at the end of the month makes no sense as there will only be three weeks before the end of term before the summer holidays and this is not a good time.”
Speaking in a personal capacity Professor Chris Bonell, an expert in child development, who sits on the government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies – SAGE – pointed to the need for balance. He said: “It would be a good idea to get school children back in a phased way. Research is suggesting children are less at risk of severe symptoms and being infected in the first place.
“The costs and benefits of lockdown are unequally divided between generations as well as geographical locations and richer and poorer groups.
“We have a responsibility to protect older people and reopening schools in this phased way could ensure this as long as we have adequate testing and contact tracing so we don’t see an upsurge in cases.”
The comments come as child mental health experts sent an open letter to ministers urging them to prioritise child play and social interaction over formal learning when loosening the restrictions begins.
The panel is concerned about the impact of more than six weeks play without friends. Sam Cartwright-hatton, leading expert in clinical psychology at the University of Sussex, said: “I am really worried about the impact on children. Some will be having a terrible time in lockdown – especially those without a safe, happy home.”