Pre-fab classroom extensions, hermetically-sealed bubbles, Perspex desk barriers, ‘American-style’ sound systems and one-way traffic in corridors, no lockers, e-books and even furniture-free classes…

This is what COVID-19-ready schools will be like when the next scholastic year – and the new (education) normal – kicks off at the end of the month.

After an unexpected shutdown caused by the pandemic, the awaited national guidelines on how to operate when reopening were launched on Wednesday, with schools scrambling to fine-tune their plans, or get their act together in the time left.

At San Anton School, the coronavirus experience could see younger students turn up with an added touch to their uniforms – special hats with attached visors, which are deemed more comfortable and user-friendly for the young ones.

The move is in line with the mandatory wearing of masks for pupils aged between three and 11 in communal areas, while teachers and students aged over 11 must wear them throughout.

The independent school in Mġarr has been working on COVID-19-safe measures throughout the summer and is looking at a mix of solutions, according to children’s requirements and both the potential and limitations of the physical space.

Among the back-to-school changes in COVID-19 times, it will be meeting physical distance guidelines with pre-fab extensions for pre-grade and by having only 18 kids in each class in other grades; temporary, gypsum, sound-proofed classrooms are being set up and specialist rooms are being repurposed.

Other pre-fab offices are being made available for teachers to carry out distance learning, while outdoor learning will be encouraged with new covered areas, said head of school Sandro Spiteri.

Early years and junior sector classes will be ‘bubbles’ – “as hermetically sealed as possible” – with no third parties allowed in. A number of these will make up a zone, again as sealed off as possible to minimise spread.

Classrooms are being stripped to the bare essentials

Among the measures designed for minimum disruption to ‘school as usual’, single-desk classes will now have Perspex barriers, also available for LSEs and other staff working one-to-one with students.

The usual drill of temperature checking, that happens in most scenarios, will go further – not just at the various school entrances, but also on vans and for all passengers in private cars before the kids alight.

COVID-19 will do away with lockers for senior sector students to ease ‘travel’ in corridors, which will also be navigated through one-way systems. This will mean the lightening of their load by using e-books where possible, while another innovation for the older cohort is online assessment.

The extra mile

Some schools have even gone beyond the requirements of the Public Health guidelines, offering a hybrid solution.

San Anton School will be running a full distance-learning option – “live, fully interactive and by qualified teachers” – for both formally vulnerable students and staff, in parallel with in-person schooling.

This provision is also being extended to kids on quarantine – again, not a national requirement, highlighted Spiteri.

The system allows for “switching seamlessly to full live online learning for whole classes and sectors from one day to the next, should they be quarantined,” he explained, adding that this option will “still respect the need for kids’ socio-emotional support through highly-controlled in-class sessions in the programme’s induction phase”.

Space, time and money

Ideas are brimming but there is little time and limited funds for some church schools to implement the technology required.

This is especially so for investment in temporary measures, such as the purchase of the “tiniest” desks possible for the early years to replace their normal grouped configuration for social-distancing purposes.

Classrooms are being stripped to the bare essentials – single desks – and, in some instances, the movers are coming in to take out furniture and make way for these, small as they may be.

In others, measuring tapes, rulers and even 1.5-metre broomsticks have been put to good use for the meticulous calculation of space between the chairs of each desk, in line with the physical distance guidelines.

The challenge for some has been fitting the same population into the same spaces because not every school can tap into additional teaching resources to split and increase the number of classes even if they have the rooms.

And while desks can be moved around, adequate vision of interactive whiteboards – the safe use of which has also been called into question because of the touching they entail – also needs to be ensured.

Nevertheless, they are determined to overcome any obstacles and make things work in new ways, acknowledging it is better to have the children back.

One school is toying with the idea of adopting the ‘American style’, with a PA system throughout its common areas to communicate without having individuals moving around classes.

Morning prayers and assemblies are likely to be held in ‘bubbles’, or online, followed by students from the comfort of their classroom and led by heads in their offices.

Beyond the guidelines, the banning of students’ singing at the top of their lungs due to the spread of the virus through droplets is also being considered; and other details that would have been taken so for granted are being ironed out.

De La Salle, Stella Maris and St Benild’s have also stepped up preparations to start the scholastic year in the safest manner and will soon be communicating the measures to parents, students and staff, said Stephen Cachia, Lasallian colleges’ director of educational mission.