Europe at large has established numerous measures that will allow schools to reopen and stay safe during this coronavirus pandemic.

The UK has already confirmed that schools will be reopening in the next few months. As such, schools must get ready by following the outline provided to them by the authorities.

Blended model explained

The aim of this model is to reduce the time students will spend in schools. It combines classroom attendance and online digital learning. Therefore, teachers will only take students through important topics in class and provide assignments through a digital platform to be completed at home. The government has said that the in-person contact will be minimal between teachers and children.

Although the blended model is meant to reduce the class size since some kids will attend during morning hours while others will attend in the afternoon, schools will still have to look for ways to expand their classrooms to satisfy social distancing requirements.

The need for extra classrooms

In the blended learning model, schools will have a minimal number of students attending classes at a given time. But still, the current classrooms, libraries, and halls will not be sufficient to maintain social distance. Temporary structures must be erected by schools so that student desks can be spread out as per the requirements of the law.

Any school that requires affordable and reliable temporary classrooms should contact the Smart-Space experts since they are among the best in the UK. They will talk you through the available options to suit your school’s needs. The best part is that they have turnkey solutions that even fit in spaces that are small. Thus, it is possible to plan and expand any school through their skill and expertise.

What others are doing

Some other schools in Europe have already resumed classes. They are all observing social distancing among other measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

In Denmark, schools are encouraging pupils to stay socially distanced or in micro-groups in school and during break time and to carry out an hourly hand washing. According to officials, the children have different schedules of arriving at school, and they must be in their assigned zones at all times.

Germany, on the other hand, has sufficiently spaced seating for each student. Pupils went back to school at different times depending on their grades with the seniors beginning first.

Notably, all schools in different parts of Europe agree that a blended learning model is the best way to minimize exposure among children. And this is working perfectly well so far. This is why the UK is certain that it will work in their case as well.

The role of parents in a blended model

To make this approach a success, parents are encouraged to get ready to participate fully. They should make sure that their children are completing the assignments and homework issued through digital platforms. It is also their obligation to protect their children from cyberbullying when they are using tech devices at home to complete their schoolwork.

The final word

The blended learning model is expected to work well in the UK according to the government. But all the above precautions must be fulfilled first. All parties have a role to play. Parents, teachers, and pupils can work together to protect the health of those in their communities.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause disruption across the world in so many different aspects of life, it’s been easy to forget that there is a US presidential election looming large on the horizon. In many ways, it feels like yesterday that Donald Trump overcame the odds to defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and take back the White House for the Republican Party.

With Trump’s first term in office now coming to a close, it looks like Joe Biden, who served as vice-president to Barack Obama during his eight years in office, is odds-on to be the Democratic challenger this time around, and the odds on the 2020 US Presidential Election suggest that he may have a better chance than first thought.

If Biden is to overcome Trump, he will need to zero in on the areas in which Trump has caused controversy, and use these flaws in the president’s conduct to further his own bid to win back the White House. Here, we look at a few areas in which Biden could gain an advantage over Trump in the months leading up to the election.

Handling of the pandemic

One of the biggest issues ahead of the election that will inform voters is how Trump has handled the coronavirus crisis that has swept across the globe. With the US sadly posting the highest Covid death toll in the world, Trump has come in for criticism in how he has handled the pandemic, with some believing the president has not taken the virus seriously enough and has not implemented adequate lockdown measures to prevent its spread.

Indeed, Trump has launched various tirades at both China and the World Health Organization (WHO) in light of the virus’ spread, and the president even took the bold recent step of severing the USA’s ties with WHO.

While Biden is unable to have little direct impact on this aspect of election influence, voters who will have been on the fence as to whether to vote for Trump or not may have been swayed against him as a result of the president’s handling of the crisis.

Social media controversy

Another area in which Trump has caused controversy is in his social media presence, particularly his Twitter profile. In recent weeks, Twitter has taken action against the president by including a fact-checking warning message below one of Trumps tweets regarding mail-in ballots, encouraging users to ‘get the facts about mail-in ballots’.

This was followed by Twitter’s decision to hide one of Trump’s tweets, with the social media site claiming that the president had broken Twitter’s rules about glorifying violence by tweeting “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”, in relation to the protests surrounding the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

Biden could use this social media controversy as a way to garner voters, by both highlighting areas where he disagrees with the president, and by presenting a contrasting perspective of himself on his own social media profiles.

Swaying the swing states

Of course, Biden’s main task must be to regain the crucial swing states which handed Trump the victory in 2016. This will require a focused, determined campaign from the 77-year-old, to get ahead in the US politics betting tips and convince voters that he is indeed the man to bring the country forward and heal the divisions which have been so accentuated in the US in recent years.

It’s unclear what the campaign trail will look like this year, given the nature of the coronavirus pandemic, but whatever form it takes, a concerted effort on the part of Biden and his team could lead to a memorable victory come November.