Grace Higher Secondary School, Kohima
Physical distancing at schools
When it comes to physical distancing, it is important that you establish
some classroom ground rules in accordance with the procedures
established by your school’s administration, as well as the protocols
established by your respective country’s Ministry of Health and/or
local health bodies and authorities. Recommended measures include:
• Maintain a distance of at least 1 metre between everyone
present at school
• Increase desk spacing (at least 1 metre between desks), stagger
recesses/breaks and lunch breaks (if difficult, one alternative is
to have lunch at desks)
• Limit the mixing of classes for school and after-school activities.
For example, students in a class will stay in one classroom
throughout the day, while teachers move between classrooms;
or classes could use different entrances, if available, or establish
an order for each class to enter and leave the
building/classroom
• Stagger the school day to vary the start and end times and avoid
having all the students and teachers together at once
• Consider increasing the number of teachers, if possible, to allow
for fewer students per classroom (if space is available)
• Advise against crowding during school pick-up or day care, and
if possible avoid pick up by older family or community members
(i.e. grandparents). Arrange school pick up/drop off times
differently (according to age group) to decrease any large
gatherings of children at a given time
• Use signs, ground markings, tape, barriers and other means to
maintain 1 metre distance in queues around entrances
• Discuss how to manage physical education and sports lessons
• Move lessons outdoors or ventilate rooms as much as possible
• Encourage students not to gather and socialize in big groups
upon leaving school grounds.
• Encourage students to get into the practice of regularly washing
their hands and/or applying hand sanitizers at key moments,
such as entering and leaving the classroom; touching surfaces,
learning materials, books, and after using a tissue to blow their
nose.
• Students should always cough and/or sneeze into their elbow.
However, if by accident they do so in/on their hands, instruct
them to immediately wash their hands or apply hand sanitizer. If
students sneeze or cough into a tissue, ensure that it is
disposed of immediately and that they wash their hands. It is
extremely important to normalize the idea of frequent and
routine handwashing.
• Even with clean hands, encourage students to avoid touching
their eyes, nose and mouth. Germs can transfer from those
areas on to their clean hands and spread around the classroom
this way.
• Reinforce frequent handwashing and sanitation and procure
needed supplies. Prepare and maintain handwashing stations
with soap and water, and if possible, place alcohol-based hand
sanitizers in each classroom, at entrances and exits, and near
lunchrooms and toilets.
Teach the five steps for handwashing
1. Wet hands with safe, running water
2. Apply enough soap to cover wet hands
3. Scrub all surfaces of the hands – including backs of hands,
between fingers and under nails – for at least 20 seconds. You
can encourage students to sing a quick song at this point to
make it a fun habit
4. Rinse thoroughly with running water
5. Dry hands with a clean cloth or single-use towel.
If there is limited access to a sink, running water or soap in the school,
then use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 per cent alcohol.
Did you know? Cold water and warm water are equally effective at
killing germs and viruses – as long as you use soap!
Encourage students to get into the practice of regularly washing their
hands and/or applying hand sanitizers at key moments, such as
entering and leaving the classroom; touching surfaces, learning
materials, books, and after using a tissue to blow their nose.
Students should always cough and/or sneeze into their elbow.
However, if by accident they do so in/on their hands, instruct them to
immediately wash their hands or apply hand sanitizer. If students
sneeze or cough into a tissue, ensure that it is disposed of
immediately and that they wash their hands. It is extremely important
to normalize the idea of frequent and routine handwashing.
Even with clean hands, encourage students to avoid touching their
eyes, nose and mouth. Germs can transfer from those areas on to
their clean hands and spread around the classroom this way.
Reinforce frequent handwashing and sanitation and procure needed
supplies. Prepare and maintain handwashing stations with soap and
water, and if possible, place alcohol-based hand sanitizers in each
classroom, at entrances and exits, and near lunchrooms and toilets.
To do
Identify some practical steps/activities you can take to demonstrate
good hygiene practices to your students. Examples include:
• Creating a hand hygiene song to sing with your students
• Have students draw hygiene posters for the classroom
• Set a hand hygiene ritual. You can select a specific time during
the day, such as before/after lunchtime for everyone to wash
their hands/apply hand sanitizer
• Physically demonstrate how to wash your hands and apply
sanitizer
• Keep a points system in your classroom, giving points to
students each time they wash their hands or apply sanitizer
• Have students create a public service announcement on hand
hygiene and place these posters/ announcements throughout
the classroom or school in highly visible places
Mask wearing in schools
If wearing fabric masks is recommended in your school, then make
sure your students are familiar with when they should wear masks
and any related school policies, such as how to dispose of used
masks safely to avoid the risk of contaminated masks in classrooms
and playgrounds.
Explore with your students how to handle and store masks properly.
All efforts should be made to ensure the use of a mask does not
interfere with learning. No children should be denied access to
education because of mask wearing or the lack of a mask because of
low resources or unavailability.
If you have students with disabilities, such as hearing loss or auditory
problems in your class, then consider how these children may miss
learning opportunities because of the degraded speech signal
stemming from mask wearing, the elimination of lipreading and
speaker expressions and physical distancing. Adapted masks to allow
lipreading (e.g. clear masks) or use of face shields may be explored
as an alternative to fabric masks.