BSN students returning to school
In times like this, getting hundreds of students back into a school building is never going to be easy. So how have they done it here at the Senior School in Voorschoten? Being a student here has meant several different things over the past few months.
Dylan Jhugroo
Voorschoten - On Friday the 13th of March we found out that we won’t be coming back to school until after Easter, which sparked both positive and negative reactions from the students. Some were excited about spending extra time at home and saying goodbye to early-morning getups. Others were a little worried about what this massive change really meant for us.
Distant learning
What followed was roughly 2 months of what was called ‘Distance Learning’. All the students had the exact same lessons they would have normally had, except they were doing it from home. Teachers would set work online for us to complete, and it was up to us to get it done. Sometimes, the teacher would schedule a live meeting during lesson time, and we were able to discuss what we were learning about with our teacher and classmates.
Strict guidlines
But a few weeks ago, we found out that change was coming once again. Students were now allowed to return to school, but only under strict guidelines. Firstly, Years 11 and 13 were declared to have finished their courses, meaning they didn’t need to return until the next school year.
The rest of the students were alphabetically split into two groups – Alpha and Beta. The idea being that Alpha students would come into school on one day, whilst the Beta students would continue Distance Learning from home. The next day, they would switch around, creating an alternating system where every student is in school half the time.
No moving
But even with this system, we’re still talking about a huge number of people coming back into school. To control movement around the building certain years now spend all day in one classroom, with their teachers coming in and out to teach them. This means they’re not moving around the school anymore to get to their next lesson.
One-way walking system
Unfortunately, though, this issue becomes a little more complicated with the older students. Having selected specific subjects that we want to take, we have our lessons with different classmates, so we do have to move around a bit. So, the school have designed a one-way walking system around the building. The idea is; if everyone’s walking in the same direction, it’s much easier to stay 1.5 metres apart.
Sometimes it means you have to walk around the whole building in order to go 2 doors down in the other direction… but nothing in this situation is going to be ideal and we bear it with a smile.
The school has also adopted measures such as providing hand-sanitiser around the building and placing supervisors in the corridors to make sure the guidelines are being followed. All these factors are helping limit the spread of the coronavirus.
We have no idea how long this is going to be the case, but it’s working for now. We’re hoping that soon, we’ll be in a position where we can gradually start going back to normal, but safety comes first.
We’ll just have to wait and see what the future has in store for us.