SECONDARY schools reopened today for children in year 10 and year 12 who will be sitting crucial exams next year so they can get in-person support from teachers.
Kids will be able to get extra help from teachers in person and online after as many as 90 per cent of secondary schools and colleges reopened for older students today.
Only a quarter of pupils in year 10 and year 12 will be allowed to be in school at any one time.
This means kids will have online learning supported with face to face contact.
Guidance from the Department for Education said: “Secondary school pupils and college students… are more likely to have higher numbers of contacts outside of school/college.
“For now, we are asking secondary schools and colleges from June 15 to online provide some limited face-to-face support for year 10 and 12 pupils… to supplement their remote education.”
Schools will split kids up into two separate groups – one which attends Monday – Wednesday and another which attends Wednesday -Friday.
But lessons probably won’t look the same.
Guidance tells teachers that for the 3 days a week year 10 kids are in, they should be a focus on one-to-one meetings with staff the children are familiar with to help ease them back to school.
If teachers do plan on carrying out formal lesson, older students should be kept 2 metres apart from each other “where possible”.
Classes shouldn’t be any bigger than half their usual size to help students stay apart from each other.
For many schools, this means they will need to stagger break times and putting one way systems into corridors.
The Sixth Form Colleges Association advised teachers to continue to make remote learning “the primary mode of learning for most students”.
Teachers are advised to focus on “low-stakes, formative assessment” lessons to help kids facing exams feel “confident and secure” in what they already know.
Online learning will be used to back up the time they do spend in classrooms and teachers have been advised to record videos that pupils can watch before they sit quizzes in class.
According to a survey by the Association of School and College Leaders, 9 out of 10 secondary schools in England have reopened to some pupils from today.
More than half of schools, 62 per cent of those surveyed, were planning to bring in all of the students eligible for some time with teachers.
But a quarter of schools said they would bring in some pupils but not all of them, mainly because parents don’t want to sent their kids back to school yet.
For Ivybridge Community College, who shared their plans for reopening with the BBC, the new rules mean only 100 pupils will be in at any one time – with only 10 kids to a class.
For year 10s, there will be one full day of teacher each week, with 90 minutes each of maths, English and science.
All other subjects will be taught remotely.
Principal Rachel Hutchinson said: “They’ll still get their full curriculum.”
How can kids travel to school?
Children are able to use public transport or school buses to travel to school, but they have been advised to avoid travelling at peak times.
In the survey by the ASCL many of the parents who wouldn’t be sending kids back to school cited not wanting them catching public transport as a key concern.
Wearing a face covering on public transport is mandatory from today, and school kids will have to follow that rule unless they have a good reason not to – such as suffering from a respiratory condition such as asthma.
They are advised to wash their hands thoroughly before and after travelling – and to avoid touching their face.
Even kids who are allowed to return to school will have to follow the Government rules on self-isolating for 14 days if anyone in their household has symptoms of coronavirus.
Ivybridge Community College said their school buses would only be able to have seven kids onboard to ensure social distancing.
The college had also banned sixth formers from sharing cars to avoid contact between them.
Supermarket-style social distancing
Ivybridge has put 2m social distancing markers all along the corridors and a one-way system in place, like in supermarkets.
All entrances will be monitored by staff in high-vis jackets, and the school is now full of hand-sanitising stations and posters reminding children to wash their hands and not get to close to one another.
Ms Hutchinson said: “It’s going to be that supermarket feel – when you go to a supermarket for the first time with the trolley queues,” she says.
With smaller numbers of kids in classrooms, it will be manageable, but if more kids come in social distancing would be a real challenge Ms Hutchinson said.
Will parents be fined for keeping their kids at home?
Many parents are nervous to send their kids back to school – even as the country starts to open up and non-essential retail shops on high streets open their doors for the first time in months.
But while the guidance “strongly encourages” children who are in eligible groups to attend, parents will not be penalised for not sending them in.
Guidance states: “You should notify your child’s school or college as normal if your child is unable to attend so that staff are aware and can discuss with you.”
