'We know what we have got to do, and we'll do it as best we can': York headteacher

There is general agreement that it is important that they do go back to school, not only because their education has suffered during lockdown, but because they need to be with other children their own age.

The big issue that schools, local authorities and Boris Johnson's government have been grappling with is how they can do that while minimising the risk of a further spread of Covid-19.

So how ready are York's schools for the 'big return'?

Why it is important that children go back to school

It is important to get children back to school not just so that they can get on with their education, says Rod Sims, head of York High School. "It is as much about their mental health and that sense of feeling a part of something."

All Saints head Sharon Keelan-Beardsley agreed. "It is not just about their academic work," she said. "It is much more than that - about learning to get along with their peers, get along with adults, about interactions."

That goes for primary school children too, says Adam Cooper, head of Knavesmire Primary. Many younger children have been stressed and anxious because of the interruption to their normal routines, he believes. "There's an element of 'normal' about being back at school, being with their peers, seeing their teachers again."

It's vital that children get back to school, says Rod Sims of York High

What advice and guidance have schools been given about re-opening?

Teachers and headteachers are not experts in disease control, points out Adam Cooper. Their job is to follow the advice of experts - and try to apply it to the best of their ability.

The Department for Education (DfE) has provided general guidance for the 'full opening of schools'. This is the basic framework that schools have been working towards. 

The DfE guidance includes a set of actions that schools will be expected to take once they re-open.

These include:

• minimising contact with those who are unwell by ensuring anyone who has coronavirus symptoms (or has someone in their household who does) does not attend school
• ensuring children and staff clean hands thoroughly more often than usual
• encouraging children to ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ - cough or sneeze into tissues, then throw them away and wash their hands thoroughly
• introducing enhanced cleaning, especially of frequently touched surfaces like door handles

The DfE also says schools should also consider ways of minimising contact and maintain social distancing where possible.

In cases of infection, the DfE says, schools should

• engage with the NHS Test and Trace process
• contain any outbreak by following local health protection team advice

The DfE guidance is 'limited', admits Sharon Keelan-Beardsley of All Saints, so schools have been interpreting it as best they can.

Plans for re-opening are the responsibility of governing bodies, academy trust boards and headteachers, so every school has prepared its own risk assessment.

One problem schools face is that the official DfE guidance is likely to change at short notice - as was seen this week with the advice on wearing face masks at school.

But local authorities and academy boards have also been advising and supporting school heads. And York schools (both academy and non-academy) have also been meeting regularly for weeks, with each other, and with council staff and others, to discuss the best approach.

The city council has been great, says Sharon Keelan-Beardsley. "We have met, and there have been groups of York schools working together - not just local authority schools but academy school too, with input from Public Health England and from social workers, so there has been real joined-up thinking."

Nevertheless, there is still a huge burden for schools and staff to bear, says Rod Sims of York High. "We're not epidemiologists, and the consequences are significant. But we know what we have got to do, and we'll do it as best we can. Our staff have been brilliant."

Schools have been working together, says Sharon Keelan-Beardsley of All Saints

So what will schools be doing to minimise the risk of spread of infection?

Each school is slightly different. So while there are many things that are being done in common, schools are also doing some things differently.

Common measures include:

• Children in year group 'bubbles' to minimise interaction between different groups of young people
• Classroom desks facing forward, rather than arranged in huddles
• Enhanced cleaning of commonly touched surfaces
• An emphasis on regular hand-washing, with many schools introducing hand-washing or cleaning stations throughout the school
• Staggered break, lunch and arrival and departure times
• Reduced PE, which does not require children to shower or change clothes

There are also differences in approach, however. At York High, the canteen will be in use for lunches, although lunch-times will be staggered and there will be a 20-minute 'cleaning period' between different bubble groups using the canteen.

At Knavesmire Primary, however, children will eat lunch in their classroom rather than in the canteen. Packed lunches will be provided for children who meed then, such as those who get free school meals, but these, too, will be eaten in the classroom.

All Saints is split over two sites, the Lower and Upper Site. Younger pupils at the Lower Site will be encouraged to bring packed lunches and to eat them in their classroom. Hot meals will be served for children who get free school meals - but again, these will be in the classroom. Older children who attend the upper site traditionally go off-site for the lunch, and this will continue, says Sharon Keelan-Beardsley.

At Knavesmire Primary, children will spend most of their day in their own classroom, with lessons coming to them rather than them going to lessons. When they do have to use a shared area, such as the ICT suite, this will be carefully timetabled. An extra cleaner has been employed throughout the day to ensure tables and other surfaces are regularly cleaned.

At drop-off and pick-up times, parents will be given a 'window of time' in which to drop or pick up their children. They will be asked to do this quickly, without stopping to chat to other parents. "We will be asking them not to stand still," says Adam Cooper.

Children will eat lunch in their classroom, says Adam Cooper of Knavesmire Primary

And what about face masks?

The advice on this is changing rapidly. At time of writing, following a government U-turn prompted by advice from the World Health Organisation, the official line was that face masks should be worn by secondary pupils and staff in local lockdown areas of England, and can (but not must) be worn in corridors and communal areas at secondary schools across the country not in local lockdown areas.

Some schools, such as All Saints, had already planned to allow pupils and staff to wear face masks if they wished. Others, such as York High, had been following earlier government advice NOT to allow face masks, though were keen to be able to allow students to wear face masks if they wanted.

It is likely, therefore, that most York secondary schools will now allow students and staff to wear face masks, at least in corridors and communal areas, if they wish to do so.

For York mum Helen Meadows, whose 16-year-old twins Martha and Reuben have been shielding for health reasons since lockdown began and who start in the Sixth Form at All Saints in a few days, this still does not go far enough, however.

She would like the wearing of face masks to be mandatory in secondary schools.

And she also wants to know whether her teenagers will be allowed to wear masks in class, not just in the corridors. "Children in a classroom will not be able to socially distance and will be speaking and interacting for an hour or more," she says. "Masks should not be seen as a problem to overcome. Covid-19 is the problem, and we should be doing all we can to reduce the risk of transmission."

Martha and Reuben Meadows, who have been shielding for health reasons and want to wear face masks on their return to school