YEAR 10 and 12 students can expect an old fashioned type of education and a very different environment when they return to school on June 15, according to one of West Devon’s headteachers.

Tavistock College, Okehampton College and Callington Community College are all preparing to welcome back a large portion of these year groups for academic and pastoral support following ten weeks of lockdown.

But in order to create a safe environment there will be no more than a quarter of the Year 10 and 12 cohort in school at any one time.

Parents have had the choice whether to send their children back to school.

Students taking GCSE and A-level exams next summer have been prioritised for return to school, meanwhile the remaining students will continue with distance learning and return to school in September.

Speaking to the Times this week principal of Tavistock College Sarah Jones said around 68% of Year 10 pupils would be attending and approximately 60 Year 12 students.

Students would be on a rotation system and attend for one day a week.

Year 10s would be in classes of five and masterclasses for the sixth form students would be in the school hall to allow for larger numbers to social distance. There would be one child per table in the refectory and cold food available.

Mrs Jones said the sixth form pupils, Year 10 pupils and the children who had been in school since the lockdown — key workers’ children and vulnerable children — would all be in separate areas of the school.

There would be around 100 children in the school each day.

Mrs Jones added: ‘It’s going to look very different for pupils when they return to school. I do not feel happy that the children are treated in this way but it is the safest way to run the school at this time and safety has to come first.

‘The school has all been marked out for social distancing and there is a one-way system in place because our corridors are only one metre wide.

‘Hand sanitiser would be available at all times and teachers would be able to wear visors if they needed to speak to students within the two metre zone,’ she said.

There would be very little PE, limited to walking and running, and there would be no practical lessons because of all the cleaning up that would be necessary.

‘What we will have is some intensive teaching and pastoral support which is equally important as for some children the lockdown has been very difficult,’ said Mrs Jones.

‘It’s the right time to bring them back not only for their education but also to resocialise them. Face to face contact with teachers and with their friends is what they need and with classes of five pupils it will be easy to ask questions and find out where the gaps are.

‘This will be an old fashioned type of education but it will be worth it — not just to help fill those gaps in learning but also give the pupils the discipline of having a routine again and build relationships. It’s been a tough time and we are very much looking forward to seeing the Year 10s and 12s back again because we have missed them.

‘I would like to thank the parents for all the support they have given the school over this time.’

The principal said she expected more parents to come forward with requests for their Year 10 and 12 children to come back to school once they had seen that it was safe.

‘Anyone who wants to attend and is within the criteria to attend, we will have a place for them,’ she said.

Over the last ten weeks teachers have interacted with pupils through Google Classroom, an online resource where teachers can create classes, set work, send feedback and see everything in one place.

For sixth form pupils they have been able to have some face to face contact with their teachers through video communications services like Google Meet and Zoom.

At Callington College Year 10 students will return on Mondays and Wednesdays in 12 small groups, on a rotation system and Year 12s on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Principal of Okehampton College Derrick Brett said around 80% of parents of pupils in the two year groups had said they would like their children to return to school and the school was doing its best to cater for them within the Government guidelines, with safety of staff and pupils paramount.

Class sizes would consist of a maximum of ten pupils, he said.

‘There is a lot of work to be done to make sure we are ready but we will be ready and it will be good to see the year groups back in school again,’ he said.