UK schools return after COVID-19 lockdown
Dropping off my youngster at school was a strange experience this week. After three months at home, parents in the UK still aren’t sure whether it is too soon to start classes again, writes Europe Correspondent Stephen Drill.
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Arrive no earlier than five minutes before the official start time, and no later than five minutes after, or you will be refused entry.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to take a child to school on the first day after they reopened from the UK’s hardline lockdown.
Dropping off my youngster was a strange experience this week, and very different to BC – before coronavirus.
The routine did feel like something out of an action movie like Mission Impossible, with the brilliant teachers keeping the parents in line as much as they did the kids.
After almost three months at home, where questionable attempts at school work were made, my previously reluctant pupil was racing to get to the classroom.
Although, friends rather than fractions were the main attractions.
There has been mixed opinions and heated debate about whether to open schools at all for a short burst before the school holidays were due to start in July.
There were only seven children in my child’s “bubble” of 15 children, where some other parents said 10 of 15 had attended in the previous day’s “bubble”.
The teaching unions were against schools opening until September, saying that teachers were being put at risk.
The UK’s National Education Union claimed only 44 per cent of schools opened this week and only 10 per cent of those that did open were more than three quarters full.
Boris Johnson’s government, which is bleeding cash as it pays furloughed workers up to $A5000 per month, desperately wanted them to open on June 1 so they can get parents back to work.
There were also fears that poorer students would be most disadvantaged by the months without school, with many not having access to the internet or to a suitable place to study.
A decade of gains, reducing the educational gaps, may have been wiped out by the coronavirus shutdown.
The parents’ WhatsApp group has been a social minefield, with many reluctant to step on toes by celebrating that the kids were going back while others kept their children home for fear of catching the virus.
Conversations at the school gate were now turning to whether there will be any overseas breaks in the summer, with a two-week quarantine for all arrivals to begin on Monday.
Johnson’s colleagues hate the idea, saying it will kill the aviation industry but polling suggests the UK public was on board.
Traffic has picked up significantly around London, where as few as 25 confirmed cases were being reported each day.
At least 1.5 million people in London, or almost one in five have had the virus but it’s still making its way through the north of the country.
Some life was returning to a new normal, pubs were saving takeaway beers along the Thames, which has been bathed in glorious sunshine after one of hottest summers in 50 years.
I managed to have a couple of days off this week as a break from the coronavirus grind, and had a crack at paddleboarding on that same river, which was something I never thought I would do in the UK.
I’ll add that to the list along with standing next to a cone to pick up a child from school.
Originally published as UK schools return after COVID-19 lockdown