Desks facing forward and mobile testing units: Government publishes guidelines on how schools will look now
Classroom desks will be reorganised and mobile testing units sent to school schools under government plans to get pupils back learning from September.
New guidance published on Thursday will see children divided into "bubbles" kept separate from other children to stop the spread of coronavirus, while teachers will be told to keep their distance from children.
"Consistent groups reduce the risk of transmission by limiting the number of pupils and staff in contact with each other to only those within the group," the guidance states.
"They have been used in schools in the summer term in recognition that children, and especially the youngest children, cannot socially distance from staff or from each other and this provides an additional protective measure.
"Maintaining distinct groups or ‘bubbles’ that do not mix makes it quicker and easier in the event of a positive case to identify those who may need to self-isolate, and keep that number as small as possible."
Two or more confirmed cases at a school within a 14 day period will trigger a response decided by local authorities, with children potentially being sent home again.
The government says mobile testing units will be dispatched to schools by local authorities "where an outbreak in a school is confirmed".
The guidance says desks should all be rearranged to face forwards, with children facing the front of the classroom rather than side by side - with "unnecessary furniture" removed from classrooms to enable social distancing.
Assemblies and other gatherings of more than one bubble will also be out of bounds in order to stop the spread of the virus between groups.
The government suggests that timetables, school start times and and break times should be staggered, with specifics left up to each school depending on its circumstances and layout.
The new rules will apply from September when all pupils return to school following the summer break. Some children, notable those of designated key workers, are already in schools.
Teachers warned that some of the plans would be "enormously challenging" to implement, with a headteachers' union singling out provisions for "bubbles".
"The logistics of keeping apart many different 'bubbles' of children in a full school, including whole-year groups comprising hundreds of pupils, is mind boggling," said Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).
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