MANY pupils across the North of Ireland in years seven, 12 and 14 are going back to school for the first time since March.
Schools closed to all but a few pupils that month due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Education Minister Peter Weir has said that opening schools was probably the “top priority” for the executive.
However, a Co Antrim school has said it will not be opening on Monday after a pupil tested positive for COVID-19.
s pupils begin to return to class today, there will be measures in place in many schools.
Those measures include:
Staggered starts and ends to the school day so parents are not dropping all children off at once
Staggered meal and break times so children are not mixing in the playground with a lot of others at one time
School meals may have to be eaten in classrooms or even outside
One-way systems in school corridors
Children may not be able to bring things like books or stationery home and then back to school
Items such as Lego and soft toys that are difficult to clean are likely to disappear from classes
Guidance for the reopening of schools states that face coverings are “strongly encouraged” in the North of Ireland schools if social distancing is not possible, but are “not generally recommended for routine use”.
Justin McCamphill of the National Association of Schoolmaster and Women Teachers (NASUWT) says many of its members are apprehensive about going back to work.
Many members, he said, say their schools do not have “soap and water or hand sanitiser in place”.
He said many members say they had not been consulted on “the risk assessments on which their schools are going to reopen today”.
“This is not how you should be doing business,” he said.
“If our teachers are not confident, how on earth can parents be confident with this reopening?.”
He said teachers here cannot understand why original school reopening guidance issued in June by Stormont’s Department of Education – that would have seen only some pupils return and included social distancing measures in schools – had since been changed.
“That makes a very stressful situation and we know that many of our members have had sleepless nights worrying about the plans,” he said.
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