Hundreds of Derry pupils go back to class

Next week all primary and secondary pupils in Derry will be back on a full-time basis including pupils who attend Special Schools.

Painstaking efforts have been made to ensure pupils, staff and school communities are safe amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Principals and governors have introduced a range of rigorous safety measures to try to reduce the risk of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the classroom or as pupils make their way to school.

Some pupils, teachers and classroom assistants had their temperatures checked yesterday while the use of face coverings was encouraged on school buses and in corridors.

Regular hand-washing has been taking place, and pupils desks have been placed a metre apart to ensure social distancing.

Younger pupils are being confined to protective classroom bubbles with teachers making their way to them for lessons.

Older pupils, however, will make their way around schools where their timetables diverge and will use face coverings when walking the corridors.

Schools are operating staggered arrival and leaving times to facilitate social distancing.

The Public Health Agency (PHA), Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon, Sustrans, and local schools have encouraged children to walk or cycle to school where possible to reduce demand for school buses and shared transport and to improve children’s health and well-being.

Yesterday pupils spent the day familiarising themselves with the new safety regimes that have been put in place for 2020/21.

Education Minister Peter Weir has said a safe return to full-time education is essential to ‘ensure that all our pupils, battered and bruised as they will be by the COVID situation, are given the best possible chance to progress into the future.’

NASUWT however, has said 58 per cent of teachers in the north do not feel prepared to return to their school.

Seventy-seven per cent of teachers responding to a NASUWT survey also said they don’t feel, or they are not sure, it is safe for pupils to return to their school.

Justin McCamphill, NASUWT National Official NI, said: “The fact that 77% of teachers told us they don’t feel their school is safe for pupils to return is very concerning.”