The Obstacles and the New Social Distancing Rules that Affect Your School

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The Obstacles and the New Social Distancing Rules that Affect Your School

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on the 23rd June that from September, all children will be expected to attend school; whether they’re at secondary or primary. This is in part to the reduction of the social distancing rules that people must remain one metre plus, away from each other, not the previous two metres.

Regardless of the distance, there are still some big obstacles that schools are facing.

Classroom Space

Even when you half the social distancing rules, you don’t immediately have the ability to hold full classes of 30 within some classrooms. Therefore, pupils will still need to be taught in smaller groups which will mean more teaching space will need to be found.

There has been suggestions of using community spaces like community halls as extra teaching spaces, but there isn’t enough of these to accommodate the extra classrooms that have been suggested and some of these will go back to being in public use soon.

School canopies could be utilised for outdoor teaching spaces for some students. But what will happen when Britain enters the winter and outdoor spaces become too cold? Our Social Distancing Canopies for Schools can be installed with side panels and even DDA doors, heating and lights to keep children warm however, in the really cold months, they may not be ideal for teaching the same class outside all day long.

Staff Availability

Another problem is going to be staff availability. Certain subjects, like Physics, only 43% of the required trainee teaching recruits were found late in 2019. And other subjects like Maths and modern languages are also falling behind in recruitment figures. If schools need to add more classes in order to cope with more classes, the lack of teachers is really going to show.

In addition, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has suggested that bubbles could be expanded to include whole classes. But this has not be clearly defined and has caused concern. Geoff Barton, the general secretary at Association of School and College Leaders, has stated it is hygiene rather than the 2 metre rule that is problematic. For instance, he says that it would be hard for specialist teachers to be expected to deliver excellent learning on subjects they’re not trained to deliver.

While primary schools have fewer problems, there are still concerns over staff shortages.

Outside Of School

Another challenge would be students coming and out of school Schools don’t often have abundantly large entrance/exit points. How are children going to social distance while entering these areas. Are children going to be social distancing when walking to school or taking the bus to school?

And how are schools expected to keep everyone safe when children could meet up with anyone at the weekend, pick up the virus and then spread it around school in the week?

While the government is expected to release more notes about the subject in the coming weeks, there are still a limited amount of time for your school to prepare for the new normal.

Click below to download our brochure to click here to view our canopies for schools.

Able Canopies Ltd. design, manufacture and install canopies and shade structures
at schools, nurseries and educational settings to enable year-round
Free Flow Outdoor Play and Outdoor Learning.
For more information please contact us

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The Obstacles and the New Social Distancing Rules that Affect Your School

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