How one Yorkshire secondary school has welcomed students back into the classroom

Schools are beginning to return in England and Wales this week with a mix of starting dates, with some schools having training days as staff prepare for new safety measures.

Outwood Academy Adwick, in Doncaster, has implemented staggered start and finish times for every year group and has provided reusable masks and visors for all teachers as it partly reopened yesterday (2 September) for students and staff.

Elsewhere, all classrooms have been rearranged to ensure desks now face forward and each classroom has been kitted out with a sanitation station where students will wash their hands to limit the potential spread of the virus.

Headteacher Andy Scruby said these are just a number of measures introduced by the school as it welcomed back year 7 and year 12 yesterday (2 September), with all age groups returning from today, and adapts to a new way of working amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said he was delighted there had been a 95 per cent recorded attendance today as a YouGov survey suggested one in six (17 per cent) parents in England and Wales is seriously considering not sending their children to school this month over Covid-19 fears.

It is not clear how many parents will have sent their children back across England and Wales, with no official figures yet, although attendance is compulsory.

Mr Scruby told The Yorkshire Post: "Students have come back perhaps at first maybe a little bit anxious but now they are really thankful to be back into learning, back into working with staff and really excited to be back in school.

"It’s great to see them socialising with friends, socialising with staff - it feels like a school again - back in education."

He added the school initiative to email videos demonstrating what procedures would be used when school reopened, and checklists for parents had helped to ease any concerns.

Mr Scruby said: "We’ve tried to be really open and transparent about procedures which are in place."

There will be reduced movement of pupils around schools, with classes and year groups staying in designated zones, while their individual subject teachers come to them to teach.

"They have their own zones, their lessons take place within that bubble zone," explained Mr Scruby, who started teaching in 2004.

It has been "highly recommended" by the school, following advice from the Department of Education, that pupils wear face coverings in busy areas, such as corridors.

Mr Scruby said: "We are saying it is highly recommended in communal spaces and on corridors, and we are seeing students that are wearing masks."

Carolyn Blundell, the associate executive principle from Outwood Academy Adwick, added: "We are very much trying to respect individuals personal choice about wearing a mask. Whether that is for young people or adults, and of course there will be some staff that have underlying health conditions, as there will be children who will be unable to wear masks for whatever reason .

"So we are trying to balance absolute precaution and safety against perplexing the individuals that we care very much about."

And across the Docaster academy and the Outwood Academies Trust, which operates 32 academies across northern England and the East Midlands, all teachers have been issued with a reusable mask and visor which they can opt to wear while teaching.

Ms Blundell said: "Teachers of course are given the option that if it is something they choose to do, that they are of course entitled to wear either of those where they feel the necessity to do so.

"We are very keen to support staff and help them manage any anxieties they have about returning."

A spokesman from Outwood Academies Trust added: "At Outwood, we want to do all we can to keep our students and staff safe. To this end, we are issuing all staff with a face covering for use in spaces where social distancing is more difficult to maintain."

Understandably, some children felt nervous about returning to school after nearly six months away from the classroom.

Ms Blundell said it is about reinforcing the new safety measures in a clear and understandable way to staff and students and keeping an “honest, open and transparent communication,” with parents.

She said: "It’s good to be back, it’s not the same - we have a new normal but we are taking safety really seriously.

“There is an awful lot of liaising taking place with parents, to try and make it work for them but make sure their children don’t miss any teaching time.

"Our message is - talk to us, because we want to work with parents to get children back to school because school is the best place for them to get specialist teaching."

In other developments

- Across Scotland and Northern Ireland schools have already opened for the new academic year.

In Scotland, where pupils returned several weeks ago, official statistics show one in 10 pupils is absent, although ministers and teachers have suggested cold and flu viruses are mostly to blame.

Meanwhile in England a poll by Mumsnet found 46 per cent of parents were 'anxious' about sending their children back to school, while 52 per cent were 'relaxed'.

Next year's exams could be delayed so pupils can make up for lost learning

Ofqual's chairman is to be grilled by senior MPs amid uncertainty over whether exams will take place in England next summer and continued anger over the GCSE and A-levels fiasco.

Roger Taylor will appear before the Commons education committee on Wednesday in the wake of the chaotic handling of grading exams cancelled during the coronavirus crisis.

Labour has urged Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to ensure that "a summer of incompetence" over exams does not descend into an autumn of "disaster and dismay".

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said yesterday (2 September) that there would be a decision "very soon" on whether the next exams would start late to allow for more teaching time during the disruption.

And elsewhere in England teachers and head teachers have criticised the lack of funding for safety measures, such as hand-washing stations, sanitiser, and screens.

Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Geoff Barton said it was "hugely disappointing" that these changes had to be paid for out of "hard-pressed budgets".

England's schools minister Nick Gibb has said funding for safety measures is "under review", although Ms Bousted said the government was acting too slowly.

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