Buzzing to
THOUSANDS of children returned to school this week after 11 weeks at home – but it’s a very different environment from the one they left.
Queueing at a distance, protective ‘bubbles’ and washing your hands eight times a day have become the norm for the Year 6 students who have gone back to the classroom.
The reopening of schools has been one of the most difficult of the Government’s efforts to ease the Covid-19 lockdown, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock conceding that secondary schools in England may not fully reopen until later than September.
Children in England began returning in a phased process last week, with Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils heading back first. But North East councils promised that schools in the region would only reopen when they felt it was safe to do so, following concerns from parents and teaching unions over the impact of sending children back to school while other lockdown measures to control the spread of coronavirus are still in place.
Most primary schools in Newcastle have chosen to bring back Year 6 pupils first, although some are still open only for children of key workers, while others have plans to partially reopen next week.
One school in the city that was able to welcome back Year 6 classes this week is West Jesmond Primary.
Headteacher Gary Wallis-Clarke said 50 of the 88 children in the year had returned on Monday, and that so far the process had “gone very well”. Measures introduced by the school include splitting classes in half,
into ‘bubbles,’ having stag