‘We can’t magic up new classrooms’: Inside schools trying to cope as coronavirus turns into educational crisis

Learning bubbles, temperature checks and taped-off play equipment are new normal as teachers battle valiantly with ‘impossible’ logistics of full reopenings (but pupils remain undaunted), finds Colin Drury

Outdoor classes at Lea Forest Primary Academy (Lea Forest Primary Academy)

Lunchtime at Lea Forest Primary Academy in Birmingham and 11-year-old Riley Peace is looking somewhat perturbed. The youngster says he is happy to be one of the select 90 reception, year 1 and year 6 pupils who have been allowed to return to the 505-student school after almost three months of coronavirus lockdown.

But break times leave him missing friends who are yet to return. “We don’t have enough people for a football game,” he explains. “No good.”

A friend has other preoccupations. The school, in the city’s Kitts Green area, has postponed this summer’s year 6 graduation ball. “There should be a party when you leave a school,” he says, reasonably enough.