Education
This Dutch School Reopens With Amazing Flexible Arrangements
This is the kind of post-COVID approach we all need in schools.
After the Dutch government announced primary schools to reopen on 11 May 2020, schools and parents were worried about how they would function. Will social distancing be possible? However, talking about Netherlands' British School, its schedule and module are making it look possible, answering parental concerns with satisfying steps.
To begin with, they’ve split days for pupils. “We are reopening to provide school-based learning for approximately 60 per cent of our primary student population, with 40 per cent still at home. This means that we will have just 30 per cent of our regular cohort in school each day. We did this in part because we knew many families would want to keep their children at home until after the half-term break. They could use this time as a transitional period and an opportunity to see how the new set-up worked (rather than upending their routines for such a short time before half term),” informed the school officials.
The school further explained that this would help in maintaining social distancing. They said, “This makes it a touch easier to put new social distancing measures in place and also underlines the reality that just because schools are reopening it does not mean parents will automatically want to send their children in.”
The staff has been managed to keep health and safety measures in mind as well. “We have explained this as necessitating a phase of teaching and learning that will be more traditional, didactic and structured than we would usually wish. The latest step for the staff has been to understand that the health and safety measures that have been put in place will affect their ability to teach in the way they have been trained to do,” the school informed. In addition, the school has also created ‘pods’, which are basically mini schools within the school to minimise travel within the building. The staff has rooms within these pods where they can work, eat and get refreshments.
A notice with health and safety guidelines, revised learning programme, and expected functioning of school after re-opening was communicated to the parents. This included how to drop off and pick up their children along with the information about the remote learning for the alternate days when the children are not in school.
Students along with their parents were given a list of information on how online and offline education will function along with health and safety guidelines. They were reassured on the call about children coming back to school as they also assessed how they might be feeling about the return. The school informed that all the parental concerns were answered with insight and knowledge on the school’s overall preparation. It allowed them to raise concerns, talk to their teachers about what they have been working on and generally help everyone prepare for the return with more insight and knowledge,” they said.
The school also informed that there will be an additional adult from school, who would be available for guidance. They explained, “Having the extra BSN-related adult not only provides the level of safeguarding required for such a call but means there is a second school-related person to continue the conversation if any technical issues affect the teacher’s connection.”
“All we can do is trust that everyone wants the best for the pupils and that they will do whatever it takes to ensure they are reassured, nurtured and engaged with fun, relaxed and personalised activities that help them adapt to our new set-up,” the school reopens with this thought.
Source: Tes