Thousands of children return to school in Kent after Covid lockdown but headteacher explains easing them back in is biggest task
|
Updated: 15:25, 08 March 2021
A longer lunch break and extra snacks - it s a return to school but not as we know it.
Thousands of children across Kent will return to classrooms today after the longest Christmas break in history - although admittedly some did return for one day before the government performed a screeching u-turn.
Tiger Primary head teacher, Hayley King, speaks on preparing to welcome children back
For two-and-a-half months the vast majority of pupils have been learning from their living rooms in an effort to get a grip on spiralling Covid-19 cases.
Millions of children are returning to the classroom for the first time since December as coronavirus restrictions in England begin to ease.
Under the first phase of the Government’s road map out of lockdown, visits to care homes are also resuming from Monday – under strictly controlled conditions.
And the rules around meeting another household have been loosened to allow people to leave home to meet one other person outdoors for a coffee or picnic.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that although it is “only a small relaxation of the rules”, the changes will bring “joy and relief” to families after months of “tough restrictions”.
Concerns have been raised that the “tired” NHS workforce will immediately be forced to tackle the waiting list backlog after a year of battling coronavirus.
A leading medic said he fears that, as soon as the number of hospital patients with Covid-19 reduces, the “focus” will switch to keeping waiting lists down and restoring NHS services.
But Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said he is “most worried” about tired NHS staff, who have been “working above and beyond to fight the pandemic”.
It comes as record numbers of people are waiting for hospital treatment.
Professor Calum Semple, an expert at Liverpool University and SAGE adviser, pointed to studies that have shown primary school pupils are half as likely to catch and fall ill with Covid as adults.