COVID-19 has changed the learning environments of all schools, colleges and universities across the country.

Whilst health and safety has always been a priority for places of education, never before have our classrooms deployed such unfamiliar safety measures to ensure both staff and students remain safe. Here we explore just some of those safety measures being rolled out.

Creating a safe space for staff and students

Whilst educational establishments already have extensive cleaning regimes in place, more frequent cleaning of common areas is paramount. In parallel, like many other social settings, social distancing measures have been implemented in an attempt to minimise contacts.  The introduction of staggered start times and class or year group bubbles have been introduced as a way to support this.  Staff have also had the challenge of altering classroom layouts and implementing one way systems to best accommodate social distancing during lessons.

Implementation of hygiene measures

Students across primary, secondary and further education are being asked to take responsibility for protecting their own health. Students are caring their own personal hand sanitiser and antibacterial wipes for cleaning equipment along with a personal face covering.

Controlling access to school premises

Schools can be very busy environments welcoming many visitors every day. Whilst safety measures can be put in place, many settings are simply deciding to close their gates to all visitors in the hope it will minimise a potential spread of infection.

Acceleration of distance learning

Educationalists want to ensure students remain in their setting. If this is not possible due to covid symptoms and / or a positive test result, distance learning tools need to be made available to ensure continuity of learning. Teachers are therefore having to prepare themselves to teach on-line, set and mark assignments on-line and even host parent teacher consultations online.  For many education leaders this has been challenging due to lack of technical support, varying staff knowledge of these systems and time required for staff training.  There is also a body of work required to clearly communicate the use of these new systems to parents and guardians.

In recent months, education establishments have been faced with a whole set of new challenges to safeguard those within their supervision. Every setting has considered and implemented various health and safety measures and protocols to enable them to deliver covid safe learning environments. As these measures become the norm for students across the country, all must continue to take continuous and swift action when they become aware of a confirmed case of COVID-19.

Whilst the impact of covid continues to alter the way student learn. It is clear that those working within education are doing all they can to protect themselves, protect students and deliver continuous learning opportunities whether on-site or from home.