But I Smile Anyway…

Sue’s #WritePhoto prompt this week:

Partners bowing down
While facing one another
Ready to perform
Their first dance, after a break
But, can they keep their distance?

Ritu 2020

Today’s poem is less about dancing and more about my thoughts as we are preparing for maybe going back into school come June 1st.

I am a Reception teacher, the 4-5 year olds, and they, along with Year One and Year Six pupils, have been suggested as the first classes to head back to school when the time is right.

My first thoughts?

How on earth can we socially distance thirty 4-5 year olds (x2) in a classroom, and outside at playtime?

Apparently, by halfing the class numbers… and using other teachers to take smaller groups, staggering drop off and pick up times and playtimes and eating lunch in our classrooms.

Will we get PPE?

No, because the govt doesn’t think it’s worth it. (But at least my head has ordered some things, just in case.) Seems that as it is nigh on impossible to socially distance them, what’s the point? Oh, and they are less likely to suffer from COVID-19… Actually they are more likely to be asymptomatic carriers… So they may not suffer… but what about us?

Am I going to bring it back into my home?

This is the scariest part. I can’t see other members of our family, they can’t even meet their own grandparents, but we can mix as a teacher with her class. Then we all go home, and there is the potential of infecting our own loved ones, if someone in that group is carrying the infection asymptomatically.

Do I want to go back?

This is a really tough one. I desperately miss my class, and I am anxious because I know there are many who are going to be falling behind in their learning. But, are we safe? We are trying to keep abreast of learning by using online methods, but these things are not as easy for the younger children. Older kids can access the online learning much easier than the little ones. They need practical, hands on activities to help them learn. So, for my babies education sake, I do want to go back, but I am not wholly convinced yet, that it is right.

Quite honestly, I feel like a guinea pig. Are the government sending us back first, to see what happens? If a few extra children and teaching staff fall ill and/or die, will that be the cue for them to decide to close again?

I’m not sure I want to be a guinea pig…