PUPILS will be taught on a week on / week off basis with scaled down class sizes and playgrounds split into zones under plans being considered by the government.
The proposals, currently being studied by the SAGE advisory team, would see pupils alternate a week of home learning with a week back at school. Teachers in high risk groups such as those with underlying health conditions, would not attend school but would support remote lessons. Class sizes would be scaled down to allow social distancing in the classroom, with one suggestion being half a class rotating for lessons each week.
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The plans apply to children of all ages, although in Europe younger pupils have returned first.
The proposals come as leading experts make an urgent call for children to go back to school and be allowed to play together over fears that the lockdown is having long term adverse effects on education, emotional and social development.
No decisions have yet been made on re-opening schools but sources say a blueprint is being drawn up.
Experts point out that children are at low risk of complications from the virus, and some recent studies have also suggested they are also low-risk transmitters.
The balance between keeping children safe and making sure they received an education has proved a difficult one for ministers, but one specialist said he felt “the pendulum has swung in favour of a return to the classroom.
Professor John Jerrim, an expert at the Institute of Education, University College London, said: “I am very worried about the huge implications that lockdown is having on a generation of children – not only of school age but of nursery age when social and emotional development is key.
“Locking up a bunch of toddlers for two months is not a good thing to be doing to them as this is the point at which they start to learn to play together.
“Children are not particularly impacted by coronavirus and there are questions around whether they transmit the virus to others at the same rate. We need to get the schools going back. There is a clear downward trend of new infections.
“We are at a point where the other aspects of education and school have become more important than their risk of catching the virus and spreading it. Children are now losing out on critical time where they learn about social interaction as well as education and each day that goes by there is less of a case for saying the virus remains the main threat compared to the potential long term damage lockdown is doing to their lives. This applies to all children as well as those who are vulnerable and in violent households.
“The pendulum has swung. I cannot see a strong argument for not starting the ball rolling in June but going back at the end of the month makes no sense as there will only be three weeks before the end of term before the summer holidays and this is not a particularly good time for learning.”
Speaking in a personal capacity Professor Chris Bonell, an expert in child development, who sits on the governments Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies – SAGE – said: “I think it would be a good idea to get school children back in a phased way.
“Research is suggesting that children are less at risk of severe symptoms and being infected in the first place. The costs and benefits of lockdown are unequally divided between generations as well as geographical locations and richer and poorer groups.
“We do have a responsibility to protect older people and reopening schools in this phased way could ensure this as long as we have adequate testing and contact tracing in place so that we dont see an upsurge in cases.”
The comments come as a panel of child mental health experts sent an open letter to ministers urging them to prioritise child play and social interaction over formal learning when the loosening restrictions begin. The panel which includes representatives are extremely concerned about the impact of more than six weeks play without friends will have on child mental health.
The experts, from the University of Sussex, the University of Cambridge and the University of Reading, included psychologists, psychiatrists and other child experts wrote a letter on May 6 to Gavin Williamson MP. It said: “At this time many childrens emotional health will be suffering due to loneliness and isolation.
“As experts in childrens mental health and development we urge the Government to prioritise childrens social and emotional wellbeing in all decisions related to the easing of lockdown decisions and the reopening of schools.”
Professor Sam Cartwright-Hatton, leading expert in clinical psychology at the University of Sussex a key signatory of the letter said: “I am really worried about the impact on children and some will be having a terrible time in lockdown especially those without a safe happy home with parents trying to minimise the damage. Lack of play and peer contact is essential to development. You cannot put a number on childrens wellbeing.”
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