All you need to know about Fife’s plans for returning to school

Parents and carers have been given more information this week on what ‘back to school’ will look like for pupils in August.

Fife education chiefs have confirmed the new year will begin with in service days for teaching staff on Monday, August 10 and Tuesday, August 11, before schools open to some children from Wednesday, August 12.

However, pupils will only be in school part time with ‘blended learning’, between school and home, with the local authority expecting to have just half of its pupils in school at any one time.

Among the measures in place within the school will be signage to help staff and pupils navigate around the school building, increased hand washing and hygiene and physical distancing.

Carrie Lindsay, Fife Council’s executive director for education, said: “We want to make sure our school buildings are safe places to be for our staff and pupils.

“Physical distancing needs to continue when children come back to school, unless there is any change in national guidance. To make this happen we expect to have only 50 per cent of our pupils in school at any one time.

“This is why, when our children come back to school, they will have “blended learning”, with some of their time in school with their teacher and some of their time as home learning.”

Fife’s current proposed model for schools returning, which could change depending on national guidance, would see all primary schools working on a principle of two days in school and the rest of the week learning at home.

There would be two cohorts of pupils - one attending school on a Monday and Tuesday, the second in class on Thursday and Friday. On Wednesdays the school would be cleaned.

For secondary schools the return would be in three stages.

In stage one, 20 per cent of pupils would be in school at one time - one day a week - until no later than the end of August. During stage two, there would be 20 to 40 per cent of pupils in class at a time, and stage three would see a move towards a full timetable with 50+ per cent of pupils in.

However individual schools will share its model with parents and carers.

Final guidance from the Scottish Government on nursery provision is yet to come, but the council envisages having half of the children in nursery at a time. This means two days or two sessions for most settings, with variations on this between the 1140 hour and 600 hour models.

As the youngest children can’t be expected to stay physically distanced, other approved measures to help keep them safe such as smaller groupings, minimising contact between groups and enhanced hygiene will be used.

Those attending departments of additional support and special schools pupils will initially attend two days a week, while the council intends to increase the number of buildings used for the pupil support service with at least two sessions offered as a minimum.

Ms Lindsay said the proposed models were being shared to help families prepare for the new school year, and each school will contact parents and cares separately with full details for their children.

She added: “We are all keen for our children’s lives (and our own) to return to a new normal as soon as possible.

“We are doing everything we can to plan for the best learning experience possible within the current guidance to keep us all safe.

“I know we will all have differing views about what is the right thing to do in these unprecedented circumstances.

“I’d like to reassure you that we have looked at all of the advice and guidance, our available space, our staffing, transport provision etc to propose our options here in Fife. We will continuously review these in light of any new guidance and advice.”

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