‘Teachers don’t want conflict but we have to make this work to keep our classrooms safe’
L‘If I can take any measures whatsoever to increase confidence and put another barrier of security in, it’s worth doing’
ike all head teachers nationwide, Warren Harrison has a challenge: to instil sufficient confidence among parents and staff to ensure all pupils return to the classroom despite the pandemic. The problem was laid bare by a recent survey of parents at the Premier Academy’s Eaton Mill primary school in Milton Keynes, over which Mr Harrison presides: asked if they planned to send their children back in September, almost a third said they were not. It’s an “incredibly high” proportion, Mr Harrison admits.
“If I can take any measures whatsoever to increase confidence and put another barrier of security in, it’s worth doing,” he says.
To this end, his school is believed to be the first to make face masks mandatory. All staff, children and parents must wear one when on site or they will be denied access. Once in their bubbles, children and members of staff in close contact with them will change from a mask to a visor supplied by the school. Only reception-aged children will be exempt from the new requirements.
It is one of a raft of measures the school is taking to create a Covid-safe environment. At the Premier Academy, where 27 per cent of staff are deemed clinically vulnerable according to Government criteria, they have also invested in two airport-style thermal scanners, hand-held temperature scanners for every classroom and two isolation rooms, each equipped with a full set of personal protective equipment lest any child falls ill.
“We’ve spent about £30,000 from the school’s budget on safety measures,” says Mr Harrison. But he has been sent dozens of messages containing abuse and threats by members of the public for introducing masks at his school. “We’ve thrown quite a lot of money at it, so I hope it works.”
He’s not the only one. In the coming weeks, public health officials, scientists and politicians will be watching closely to see what effect the full reopening of schools has on the spread of coronavirus. One thing most seem to agree on is that there are bound to be outbreaks. The great test will be how to manage them. In Scotland, where term has already begun, Kingspark School in Dundee temporarily shut last Wednesday after two pupils and 17 staff tested positive.
Elsewhere, infection numbers are relatively low. But head teachers find themselves unofficially tasked with keeping things that way in buildings that were never designed for the social distancing of children.
Kay Mountfield, head teacher at Sir William Borlases’s Grammar School, in Bucks, says marquees will be erected in the grounds to provide more teaching space and enable students to be kept apart during break time.
She says: “We’ve divided the school into year-group bubbles and that comes with huge challenges. We’ve had to restructure our tutor programme and restructure the school day, reduce the number of lesson changes and the number of groups you will be in. Normally, we would have five hour-long lessons a day. We’ve reduced them to three longer lessons so students are still in school full time and the same curriculum is covered.”
“I’m excited the kids are coming back,” says Helen Pike, master of Magdalen College School, in Oxford. “If we have to close briefly, it’s fine. We spent the Easter holiday developing a virtual school.”
Sir William Borlases’s Grammar School has also spent £30,000 on safety measures so far, and the increased expenditure is expected to continue throughout the year. “We’ve gone into a deficit budget as a result of the expenses, as I’m sure a lot of schools have,” says Ms Mountfield.
Lesley Welsh, principal of George Pindar School, in Scarborough, North Yorks, said: “We want to work with every family to reassure them. We don’t want to get into a conflict. There’s no perfect way to bring children back, but we have to make this work.”