Opinion

Chris Donnelly: School communities will adapt, survive and thrive during this pandemic challenge

Chris Donnelly

Chris Donnelly

Chris is a political commentator with a keen eye for sport. He is principal of a Belfast primary school.

School life has not returned to how it was before the Covid-19 pandemic
School life has not returned to how it was before the Covid-19 pandemic School life has not returned to how it was before the Covid-19 pandemic

Six months ago, I wrote in this paper about how the sound of children returning to classrooms, corridors and playgrounds would be an occasion to rejoice.

Over the past fortnight, life has returned to our schools, with children of all ages finally being able to reacquaint themselves with friends and teachers in the familiar school setting.

Much of what we previously understood school life to mean has resumed, but there are notable differences which have and will continue to present formidable challenges to the effective functioning of our schools.

Each morning, children are getting used to passing through staffed hand sanitisation stations after arriving and making their way through the numerous designated entry points, having left their parents behind outside perimeter fences. They then spend an extra period of time washing their hands at classroom sinks before finally sitting down to begin lessons.

The length of time required to ensure up to thirty children in a class appropriately wash their hands throughout the day at regular intervals significantly eats into learning sessions, and innovative teachers are concocting ways to transform the hand-washing experience into a learning adventure, such as challenging children to recite times tables for the twenty second period.

New break and lunch time arrangements have had to be carefully choreographed to minimise the potential for class bubbles to cross over one another whilst playing in designated playground spaces, and children by now will have become familiar with the specified routes by which they process to and from classrooms to toilets, the playground and lunch halls in order to maintain distance and space from those outside their ‘bubble’.

In schools, we are used to carefully introducing children to words and phrases as a means of expanding vocabularies and developing a child’s capacity to comprehend and apply words appropriately in context. Who would have thought an otherwise innocent and carefree term like bubble could become something associated with the menacing threat of a global pandemic?

The sound of the bell is something that has not survived the virus in many school communities for a very practical reason. Given that there are now multiple start/end of day times as well as break and lunch periods, sounding a bell for each occasion would mean that it could be in use for up to twenty times a day, causing too much disruption and confusion.

Pupil absences are running at a record high for this time of year in many schools due to the genuine fears and anxieties of parents. Phone calls to schools start from not long after first light seeking advice on whether every cough, sniff and minor ailment should be treated as a potential sign of the dreaded virus and a reason to keep the child at home.

There is a strong likelihood that, during this academic year, every school will experience at least one class of children having to self-isolate for a period of up to a fortnight as a consequence of one member of the class bubble developing symptoms and testing positive. This is all the more so given the significant increase in positive test results we are witnessing across Belfast and the whole of the north in recent times, well ahead of the onset of the flu season.

A particular concern is the fate of children facing examinations, and the A Level and GCSE grades fiasco this summer does not augur well for what lies ahead. The news that the transfer tests have been postponed until January will be a source of consternation for children, teachers and a majority of parents. From experience as a parent, Primary 7 teacher and school leader, I can attest to the fact that the part of the final year in primary school that children most enjoy and remember is the time after the tests. Reducing that time and effectively cancelling Christmas for so many children in this of all years is particularly cruel, a double whammy they certainly could do without.

To date, the pandemic has put paid to school sporting team competitions, choir performances, end of year shows and even the regular school assemblies which provided opportunities to engage with, praise and reward children - all occasions that tend to linger much longer in the memories than time spent engaged in classroom-based learning.

Yet in spite of these challenges and difficulties, school communities will adapt, survive and thrive due to the ingenuity and resilience of our teachers and the boundless energy and enthusiasm of our children.

The sight of familiar faces returning to their desks, chatting with friends and completing learning activities has indeed been a source of comfort and relief, but there can be no mistaking the fact that school life is different in many tangible ways and will continue to be so into the foreseeable future.