Around the world school gates are reopening after months of lockdown which left playgrounds empty and classrooms forlorn. But where there were once excited shouts as children arrived for a new day, there are now instructions to keep your distance and regularly wash your hands. As children return to class in countries that have begun to ease their lockdown measures, new school regimes have been introduced to minimise the risk of renewed infections leading to a second wave of Covid-19. How countries manage the return of pupils is being watched closely in
Britain, where the Government has asked primary schools to reopen on June 1 for reception, Year 1 and Year 6.
France Parisian nursery teacher Dominique Sicard has been pouring over a 57-page protocol from the French education ministry on how to respect social distancing with a class of five-year olds and is categorical. “If the people who govern us think we can respect all this to the letter, there’s no point in re-opening at all,” said the 53-year-old. “I’ve already warned parents that while children will have a table and chair with their name on, it is impossible for them to remain at that desk all day. Most are happy with it.” As France slowly re-emerges from two months of confinement, the Ecole des Trois Bornes in
Paris is one of tens of thousands of the country’s nursery and primary schools opening its doors to around 1.5 million pupils this week, roughly a quarter of the total.