At primary school De Toekomst in Slotervaart it is exciting every Monday whether all classes can go to school. Moreover, learning disadvantages are difficult to overcome due to the constant unrest. “We won’t be able to keep this up for much longer.”
Every Friday afternoon, school director Marlie de Wijs (39) makes the decision: can her primary school in Nieuw-West open again on Monday? Which teachers are in home quarantine, maybe classes should stay at home? “And I often get a call during the weekend from teachers who have complaints, and we have to adjust the plan again.”
In May, Het Parool watched for a week when De Toekomst primary school in Slotervaart reopened after the lockdown. Almost six months later, we take stock of the situation: how big are the learning disadvantages, and are students, parents and teachers still keeping it up a bit?
Infected colleague
This school year started in good spirits, says director De Wijs, but in mid-September things go wrong: after a teacher tests positive for corona, almost a third of the team has to go into home quarantine. “The cautiousness of the first weeks has faded, and unnoticed you keep too little distance,” says teaching assistant Emine Polat (24), one of the colleagues who has to be quarantined. “During the break we had sat side by side for a while, not paying attention.”
Now that such a large part of the team is absent, there is nothing else for it: the school will partially return to home schooling for two weeks on September 21. The director, who carpooled with the infected colleague due to a broken leg, is also at home.
De Wijs: “We then drew up an emergency plan with lightning speed: half of the education online, the other half physically at school. The teachers who were in quarantine were generally not sick, so they taught online from home. ”
The school can reopen after two weeks, but the unrest remains. Every week there are new teachers with complaints, which means that the schedule is constantly changing.
Classes home
“In the beginning we tried to compensate for this by, for example, putting a teaching assistant in front of the class,” says care coordinator Eefje Jansen (39). “But then the extra support we need so badly, for example, to clear up backlogs, will disappear.”
That is why the school is now forced to send a class home on a regular basis – this does not benefit the learning disadvantages.
The exact size of those learning disadvantages is becoming increasingly clear on De Toekomst. “At the start of this school year, we took citizen tests, not to make a value judgment, but mainly to see where the children are now,” says Jansen.
“Technical reading in particular, ie recognizing letters and words, has declined dramatically,” says Jansen. “We also noticed it in the story sums; they require a form of analytical thinking that you can hardly practice online. ”
More conflicts
Master Matisse Kleinjans (33) also notices that the attitude of his fifth graders has changed. “After the summer holidays, they responded less actively to questions, they participated much less in class. They spend a lot of time indoors, I also hear from parents that they are concerned about that. ”
Moreover, not all parents speak good Dutch and are therefore unable to guide their children sufficiently, says Kleinjans. “So a lot of responsibility is required from a ten or eleven year old. The differences that were already there are magnified. Some students did well during the lockdown, with others you could actually start over again. ”
The backlog is not only in the curriculum, says director De Wijs. “For example, the pre-schoolers lost their school skills. They suddenly had more conflicts because they were no longer used to sharing, to work together, to wait for each other. You don’t learn that if you just stare at such a screen at home. ”
De Wijs: “In many groups, peace is gone. Because there are always different teachers in quarantine, many children always have someone else in front of the class. That causes unrest, and then the children do not get around to learning. The idea that everything will be fine by itself as long as the children go back to school is really too short-sighted. ”
Final reservations
Some children take their parents’ fears about corona to school, says Master Matisse Kleinjans. “They want to keep their distance, but at the same time you also notice that they need a pat on the head.”
There are also bright spots. “When I am in class with the children, the atmosphere is nice, it sometimes feels as if there is no corona,” says teaching assistant Emine Polat. “They have learned to deal with the chaos. I try not to let myself be fooled too much; I am flexible, I adapt. ”
Yet the unrest is taking a toll on the teaching team, says De Wijs. “A positive effect is that the collective sense of responsibility grows, everyone now faces a class that is not his own. But there is also fear, some teachers have already had themselves tested four times. ”
The principal does not know how long she can keep the school open. “I would have liked to paint a more positive picture, but we will not be able to keep this up for long. The flu season is coming, we’ve been running on our last reserves for months. More and more teachers are on the verge of collapse, I hear that from other school leaders too. ”
Care coordinator Eefje Jansen also sees the field of tension. “Another lockdown is not good for the children. But this is not good for the teachers. ”
De Wijs: “I hope we will make it until Christmas at least, but after that? That sometimes makes me awake at night. “
