I had my first day back on Thursday. I genuinely anticipated feeling a back to school fear that could be compared to no other but to be honest I was feeling excited about returning and slept fine the night before. Having taught senior infants the past number of years, the first day back gets less and less daunting every year. A new fear I had this year though was Covid, and how to keep the 30 children in front of me and myself safe.
I have a number of procedures in my classroom to help curb the spread of the infection as much as possible. I wondered for a while as to which approach was best regarding table groups, more children per group and less groups, or less children per group and more groups. I went with the first option and I’m glad I did and there is so much room between each table group now. Each group has their own box and I have their school books and three copy books inside the box – a project copybook for news time, a handwriting lined copybook and a maths copybook and a playdoh pot for each child.
For their separate equipment I am using caddies. In their caddies are glues with each child’s name, a scissor for each child, a pencil with each child’s name and a marker with each child’s name. Their pencil cases are also collected and they have a separate one for home and school. I place these in a basket and this stays on their table and will not go between school and home.
As regards sanitisation, the children sanitise their hands on the way into the classroom in the morning, before and after touching the interactive whiteboard, on their way out and into yard and before they eat their lunch. I do not have any in class support and as much as I’d love to have them washing their hands with warm soapy water more often, it is just not practical with 30 infants and one adult. Hand sanitising also occurs at other regular intervals throughout the day such as when they sneeze or cough into their hands.
For art, they will each get a paintbrush and must use that paintbrush during the art lesson. When the lesson is over, I will place each brush into a basin of warm soapy water with some Milton and let it soak. These will be washed and wiped down at the end of the day and put away until the next art lesson.
The children have a separate section on yard that they play in in their class bubble. I tell them to social distance as best they can but this is proving difficult for older classes on yard so we do need to be realistic also on the expectations we are putting on children.
For Aistear, our school has thankfully got an Aistear room. One class will use the room per week. All materials will be cleaned after each session and on Friday a thorough clean is done for the next group. For their morning play time, I have given set toys to each group per week and they will play with these toys in their table groups for that week. Each day I spray the toys with Dettol and on Friday (with thanks to the lovely Zara from ‘Infant Education’ for her fantastic ideas) all toys will be placed in a net laundry bag and dipped in cleaning solution ready for their new group on Monday.
I have placed books in a box for library time and have allowed one group per week to read the books. They will be wiped down each day and the following week, new books will be placed in the box for the next group of children.
I wear my mask for the majority of the day, I haven’t yet taken to the visor and have found my voice is even more muffled in it than the mask. I also found my throat very raw on Friday even as I was having to project my voice even louder due to the restrictions of the mask. We will get used to it, slowly but surely. I also have a screen on my desk, supplied by the school, but honestly the only time I sat at my desk so far, was in the morning before the kids arrived and in the afternoon when they went home.
As for early finishers I am putting activities in a tray for each group. They will use these activities for the week and again on Friday these will all be cleaned and rotated to the next table. I am not using my writing table or maths table so far to eliminate the amount of furniture and surfaces in the room.
Stations will take place but I plan on only having two rotations and moving the equipment as opposed to the children. The stuff can be wiped down before they are passed to the next table group.
Homework is also not taking place yet and I presume it will be online for the foreseeable when it does begin.
This is all a work in progress and please don’t stress yourself out over it. I did feel very overwhelmed on Thursday as I was trying to adhere so much to the guidelines until I realised I can only do my best. Social distancing in a group of 30 in a small room would be difficulut for adults, but when the 30 individuals are five years old it is next to impossible. They can tell me that there is a virus and that this is the reason why we can’t share and why school is a little different, but they don’t really understand how to social distance themselves. They voluntarily offer each rubbers or give each other a hug when the other is sad. All we can do is remind them how to be safe and protect themselves and each other, but they are only children and we must also be mindful of this.
I hope this has been insightful and if you have any other questions please do let me know,
Sarah
