WITH the UK's primary schools now inching back to normality Nub News spoke to a Crewe teacher about her experience of education during the coronavirus pandemic.

On June 15 Sarah Meadows welcomed back her Reception class, along with pupils from Years 1, 5 and 6. She and her fellow teachers spent the previous week adapting their classrooms to comply with social distancing and hygiene measures: rearranging tables, putting away all shared lesson resources and creating a one-way system through the school.

'Pods' of up to 15 pupils have replaced full classes, and the children, whose learning would usually be inspired by tactile resources and group activities, must keep strictly to their own pencil-case, their own tables, and their own spot on the carpet.

"They also wash their hands all the time, when they arrive in the morning, before break-time, after breaktime and the same for lunchtime," said Sarah.

"They are being very good, but I don't think they fully understand why. They know there are germs going around but I think that's the extent of it.

"This is their first year of school and it's been dictated by Covid, so I think they'll believe this is what school is like because they're so young."

Sarah adds that, while most of the children are "enjoying being back with their friends", some are "confused" by the sudden return to the school routine as they are so used to being at home with their parents.

But whether excited to be back, or wishing that lockdown would never end, "they all love break times: you don't get any of them complaining about that!"

Rather than trying to catch up on everything that they have missed, Sarah is concentrating on consolidating the "key skills" – number, letter and simple word formation – which have been forgotten over the long months of lockdown.

"They're making progress already; that's why I love teaching Reception. They came back maybe being able to write their name, and then at the end of two weeks they can write sentences. It's amazing," said Sarah.

According to Sarah, the school's reopening has also had an invaluable impact on the children's confidence and social skills. Returning to the structures and expectations of school life, even if only for a few weeks, will make them "more prepared for change" and better equipped to begin again in September.

But despite the children's rapid development Sarah is sure that coronavirus will continue to affect them throughout the coming year as their teachers are forced to adjust their approach to the syllabus to compensate for lost months of learning.

When her pupils move into Year 1, they will continue to base many of their lessons around play, maintaining aspects of their Reception routine until they cement the core skills and disciplines they need in order to advance successfully through school.

Changes will also have to be made for the children entering Reception in September as they will have missed vital months of socialisation in nursery. The usual process of gradually lengthening school days for Reception pupils will likely be extended further into the year to allow the children a chance to adapt to a post-lockdown routine.

While the legacy of coronavirus will weigh heavily on all schools for the foreseeable future, Sarah is positive that normality will resume sooner than we think, transforming the turmoil of lockdown into a strange and distant memory.

She says that, although they may not fully understand it now, her pupils will "remember this for the rest of their life", having been in the unique position of starting school amid a global pandemic.