'Toil and Trouble' or Just Blowing Bubbles?': Reflections on Week One of Wider Opening
DISCLAIMER: This will be a wholly positive post. I have had an uplifting, reassuring and successful week with a fantastic group of Year 6 pupils, in a school that I am very proud of. However, in no way do I seek to ignore the fact that many teachers will be or have been significantly anxious about their return to the classroom this week or thereafter. Every individual experience is equally valid. This is mine.
The Classroom
Arriving early on Monday morning, I stood in my classroom. I had been in 10 days beforehand to rearrange desks, answering the question of how many pupils I could safety welcome back whilst observing social distancing. I had since decided that, for me, this was not the experience I wanted for them. Hearing from parents of the specific concerns of their children and their reasons for wanting them to return, I knew that, if at all possible, I had to offer them something more connected, kind and nurturing. So I began transplanting my classroom to the school hall, where my collaborative diamond began to take shape:
My ‘communal diamond’ layout
I was pleased enough with it to take a photograph and share it. My own anxiety levels began to fall once I could imagine my pupils, after two months without face-to-face contact with one another, able to talk freely and enjoy one another's company at a safe distance. All the other requirements were in place too: access to handwashing facilities, toilets, their own exit to their playground and field zones.
The Staff
One noticeable difference this half term is the necessary (physical) absence of our headteacher who, as she is required within a bubble at our partner school (she is the Head across both), is not able to share her time between the two sites as before. So, with my own bubble set up, I was able to focus on this adjustment to my own leadership role, coordinating the day-to-day running of my school full time.
With our key worker pupils returning that day, their classroom had been set up in advance and work sent to the first of the teachers in that bubble, teaching outside of their current year group. Two of our bubbles have necessitated staffing from other year groups and I have been so impressed by the way staff have supported one another to have clear, useful planning and resources ready for their pupils. This will be an ongoing challenge but, with strong lines of communication between us, I am confident that we can adapt to these new routines.
I hope it has helped our teachers that the specific responsibilities for planning, setting and monitoring of home learning for each bubble and for those pupils and year groups not returning have been documented ahead of time. This will remain under continual review so that workload is shared equally and time is made for this to happen during the school day; building PPA into the week without crossing bubbles has been a tricky but essential part of the planning for wider opening.
Whilst I would never wish to speak for and member of staff, I have been so impressed by the sense of camaraderie in our school. Without exception, all want to make the return to school a positive experience and have moved mountains (and a lot of furniture) to make this happen. I cannot ignore the fact that most of us returned with some apprehension following a calamitous week of political incompetence and it is a credit to the professionalism of all that this has not stopped those who are able to return to the classroom from doing so and making the best of things.
The Pupils
I will admit that it was an emotional moment welcoming back my wonderful Year 6 pupils on Tuesday morning. Leading them through to the hall and showing them to their seats, I could feel their nerves. The first few minutes of the morning were quite eerie, as they adjusted to their new environment. But soon, facilitated by the diamond arrangement I had been fortunate enough to have found a space to create, they were soon chatting away about their experiences of last few weeks, the smell of the hand sanitiser each had in their table tray (fish and chips, apparently?!) and the many questions they had about what these few weeks might bring.
By the end of the week, our pupils have become experts in social distancing, observing each others space calmly and with consideration, with little if any sense of nervousness. We have a carefully choreographed classroom entrance and exit strategy, an order of hand washing, and routines in place for any other point in the day where pupils are required to leave their seats.
As always, the abilities of my pupils to rise to a challenge, adapt and accept the new continue to amaze me. Without a doubt, I owe the positive feelings I have been left with after this week to them. They have made the whole endeavour worthwhile.
The Learning
It has helped my pupils to keep to a familiar timetable for the day. We begin with the same daily practice tasks they are used to entering to, followed by maths. After break is our English lesson, followed by lunch. We have been able to build some flexibility into our afternoons, going outside whenever possible (zoning of the outdoor spaces has made it simpler to avoid bursting other bubbles), continuing our writing if the enthusiasm had persisted beyond lunch (this week's focus on different poetic forms has been a huge success and so we have carried on writing into the afternoon on more than one occasion), and offering some freedom of choice for pupils to explore a topic that interests them in greater depth. We have also spent a lot of time just talking. Talking about the lock-down. Talking about transition. Talking about memories of primary school. Talking about everything. Taking a relaxed approach has been important for all of us and has made space for us all to reconnect as pupils, teacher and teaching assistant.
For those questions that are harder to voice aloud, from day one we have kept a comment box in the 'classroom' for pupils to use. Each of them has a stack of cards in their table trays on which to write questions or thoughts, comments and suggestions, or just to draw on. Every pupil puts a card in the box as they exit for lunchtime and again at the end of the day. Questions came straight away, allowing us to reassure pupils early about some of their concerns. And by the end of the week? A stream of positive messages, comments about how much they are enjoying the learning and a number of less than flattering portraits of me dressed as various items of confectionery! In short - success!
Over the next few weeks, transition activities will form an important part of our work in the bubble. I am speaking to our local secondaries to coordinate this work, arranging to share some of the outcomes the children will produce and helping to translate messages so that, in absence of a physical transition day, pupils feel a sense of familiarity for their new schools. I have also begun asking the children what they want to learn, keen to embrace the flexibility that this situation presents and building a personalised curriculum while we can. With fewer pupils, I have other exciting plans too, one of which is to teach them all a musical instrument - perhaps we will have a performance to share before the end of term.
Final Thoughts
After a prolonged period of consternation following conflicting government guidance, unhelpful comparisons to school return in other countries, drafting and redrafting of risk assessments, the impossible balancing act over legitimate parent and staff concerns, we finally did open the door to more pupils this half term. I am glad that we spent as much time on our planning as we did. I am glad we have acted with caution, with Reception and Year 1 pupils returning from Monday rather than all groups at once. Most of all, however, I am glad to be back in a classroom (albeit not my own) with at least some of my pupils. I feel like I have returned home.
Challenges remain. Home learning needs to be balanced with a teaching timetable. Waving at my two Year 5 pupils from down the corridor as they enter their own bubble of key worker children still leaves me feeling neglectful. Staff well-being will remain an essential focus as the weeks move on and the situation will inevitably change as the weeks go by.
However, at this moment, I will enjoy a sense of satisfaction in knowing that I have made a safe, comfortable and joy-filled space for a group of pupils who deserve our very best.
