The wrought iron gates of the yellow building open this Tuesday, September 1, after a short vacation, used to design strategies that allow safe return to classes in the context of a pandemic. We are at the Real Colégio de Portugal, in Lisbon. Like this, other schools, especially those that have day care centers and pre-school incorporated, start to open their doors, as do international schools. In Portugal, considering the entire universe of daycare centers, pre-school, basic and secondary education, there are about 2.800 private and cooperative education establishments in Portugal, which are responsible for about 20% of the entire non-higher education sector in the country. About 320 thousand students study in them.
In Lumiar, the Real Colégio de Portugal, considered an example of good teaching, today begins to receive students from daycare and pre-school. Then there will be basic education and on September 14th, secondary education. With a total of 359 students, from daycare to the 12th year of schooling, this private school, which covers the entire educational path, chose to suppress traditional presentation sessions, rich in interaction and conviviality, to avoid contact.
Operating in a building where each of its five structures houses a single group of students, the school now benefits from this. It also benefits from the fact that small classes are the norm. From that point of view, it was not necessary to change anything. The college will continue to function in the organization it has always had, with only lagged times between cycles. “We will have classes coming in at 8:20 am, others at 9:05 am, others at 9:30 am… The time difference aims to avoid the crossing between students both in the morning at the entrance, as in the afternoon, at the exit, but also at breaks and in the hours lunch ”, explains Sandra Cunha, pedagogical director of Real Colégio, to Jornal Económico (JE).
The option took into account “the concern regarding parents, who in September return to work. If we went for an organization in shifts, we would be creating difficulties for them ”.
In order to put this strategy in place that guarantees physical distance, the school carried out expansion works in the cafeteria and, once again, reorganized schedules. The general rehearsal of this return to school was, so to say, carried out by the 11th and 12th graders, who, after confinement, took face-to-face classes, which will now also happen for the older students, for teachers, operational assistants and other staff.
“We look forward to the beginning of the school year with tranquility and with the hope that everything will go the best, regardless of the context in which we live”, stresses Sandra Cunha. Even so, everything was prepared under the assumption that “at a bad time, you don't bark a dog”. The procedures are internalized, the isolation rooms are prepared and the director has the Health Delegate of the area, who has already proved her competence. Even the most drastic scenario was contemplated. “Our schedules have already been planned for the three possible scenarios - face-to-face, which we are going to start these days; mixed, which includes classroom and online activities with autonomous activities; and the non-face-to-face, in the synchronous teaching formula that we used during the confinement - and the parents were informed of this ”, explains the director of Real Colégio to JE.
José Aguiar, responsible for Communication for the Association of Private and Cooperative Education Establishments, told Jornal Económico that “all schools are doing everything to ensure that security is guaranteed to the maximum”. Each one is adapting the rules that allow it to function safely to its specific reality. There are schools that have different entry and exit circuits, others where parents cannot enter, in Marist schools, for example, the temperature at the entrance will be measured.
“We are facing this school year with a perfect sense of the time we live in, but with the confidence that with the proper procedures and with respect for the rules, it will be possible to ensure what is the mission of the school, which is to teach students, privileging the on-site teaching method, ”says José Aguiar. If, perhaps, "there is a need to adapt, for some circumstance, to a mixed regime or to a distance regime, schools are also prepared for this contingency, if applicable", stresses that person.
The wrought iron gates of the yellow building open this Tuesday, September 1, after a short vacation, used to design strategies that allow safe return to classes in the context of a pandemic. We are at the Real Colégio de Portugal, in Lisbon. Like this, other schools, especially those that have day care centers and pre-school incorporated, start to open their doors, as do international schools. In Portugal, considering the entire universe of daycare centers, pre-school, basic and secondary education, there are about 2.800 private and cooperative education establishments in Portugal, which are responsible for about 20% of the entire non-higher education sector in the country. About 320 thousand students study in them.
In Lumiar, the Real Colégio de Portugal, considered an example of good teaching, today begins to receive students from daycare and pre-school. Then there will be basic education and on September 14th, secondary education. With a total of 359 students, from daycare to the 12th year of schooling, this private school, which covers the entire educational path, chose to suppress traditional presentation sessions, rich in interaction and conviviality, to avoid contact.
Operating in a building where each of its five structures houses a single group of students, the school now benefits from this. It also benefits from the fact that small classes are the norm. From that point of view, it was not necessary to change anything. The college will continue to function in the organization it has always had, with only lagged times between cycles. “We will have classes coming in at 8:20 am, others at 9:05 am, others at 9:30 am… The time difference aims to avoid the crossing between students both in the morning at the entrance, as in the afternoon, at the exit, but also at breaks and in the hours lunch ”, explains Sandra Cunha, pedagogical director of Real Colégio, to Jornal Económico (JE).
The option took into account “the concern regarding parents, who in September return to work. If we went for an organization in shifts, we would be creating difficulties for them ”.
In order to put this strategy in place that guarantees physical distance, the school carried out expansion works in the cafeteria and, once again, reorganized schedules. The general rehearsal of this return to school was, so to say, carried out by the 11th and 12th graders, who, after confinement, took face-to-face classes, which will now also happen for the older students, for teachers, operational assistants and other staff.
“We look forward to the beginning of the school year with tranquility and with the hope that everything will go the best, regardless of the context in which we live”, stresses Sandra Cunha. Even so, everything was prepared under the assumption that “at a bad time, you don't bark a dog”. The procedures are internalized, the isolation rooms are prepared and the director has the Health Delegate of the area, who has already proved her competence. Even the most drastic scenario was contemplated. “Our schedules have already been planned for the three possible scenarios - face-to-face, which we are going to start these days; mixed, which includes classroom and online activities with autonomous activities; and the non-face-to-face, in the synchronous teaching formula that we used during the confinement - and the parents were informed of this ”, explains the director of Real Colégio to JE.
José Aguiar, responsible for Communication for the Association of Private and Cooperative Education Establishments, told Jornal Económico that “all schools are doing everything to ensure that security is guaranteed to the maximum”. Each one is adapting the rules that allow it to function safely to its specific reality. There are schools that have different entry and exit circuits, others where parents cannot enter, in Marist schools, for example, the temperature at the entrance will be measured.
“We are facing this school year with a perfect sense of the time we live in, but with the confidence that with the proper procedures and with respect for the rules, it will be possible to ensure what is the mission of the school, which is to teach students, privileging the on-site teaching method, ”says José Aguiar. If, perhaps, "there is a need to adapt, for some circumstance, to a mixed regime or to a distance regime, schools are also prepared for this contingency, if applicable", stresses that person.