HEADING BACK TO SCHOOL

School gates will open once again in September after the summer holidays, as they always do, but this time a lot will have changed due to COVID. Schools will be looking for products and solutions to help their transition to a post-COVID world, with a welcome injection of government money to help them buy. So, how can dealers offer them a helping hand?

MONEY MONEY MONEY

Children in England are set to benefit from a £1bn COVID ‘catch-up’ package to directly tackle the impact of lost teaching time, the prime minister and education secretary announced in June. As plans continue for a full return to education from September, the government announced that £650m will be shared across state primary and secondary schools over the 2020/21 academic year.

This one-off grant aims to support pupils in state education after the government recognised that all young people have lost time in education as a result of the pandemic, regardless of their income or background. Nick Gibb, the education minister, said funding would start to be released in September. Schools will be advised on utilising the money by the DfE and the Education Endowment Foundation, but headteachers will ultimately decide how the money is spent.

This means that schools will have additional funds to spend on products and solutions which will help their return in September. As school leaders have discretion on where the money goes, this is a perfect opportunity for dealers to help schools out and sell products which will aid education and help the transformation that they will have to undertake to minimise the spread of COVID.

HYGIENE HEROES

Even the smallest of hands can spread lots of germs, so it is imperative that schools are on top of their hygiene practices. “The autumn term will see schools introducing new measures to help all pupils and teaching staff return safely, and with confidence, following the COVID disruption. Cleaning down surfaces after use, and thorough hand washing practices for all pupils and staff, will be mandatory, whilst also observing sensible distancing practices where possible,” explains Sue Kelly from Data Direct.

Sue points out that it won’t just be the usual surfaces that will need a wipe down, but every step of the school day will now need to feature a cleaning routine. “The new cleaning and hand washing routine will start on the school bus. It continues upon arrival, during registration, entering every classroom, the dining hall and after using sport, art and science equipment. Frequent hand washing and surface cleaning will mean increased stocks of bleach and detergents.”

Usually, school maintenance and cleaning takes place outside of teaching hours; now, the need for continuous cleaning means that it will have to take place when the pupils are still in school. This means that places to store hazardous chemicals and cleaning products which are safer to use around lots of people will be in high demand. “Maintaining hygiene throughout the school will inevitably become a daytime function rather than just in the evening when the children have gone home. If not managed and locked away, dangerous bleach and detergents could get into the wrong hands. Even the use of alcohol-based hand sanitisers can create a number of risks. A suitable solution for all round safe cleaning is Salvesan, an ultimate hand and surface disinfectant that kills 99.9999% of all germs and viruses, including COVID, within a minute,” says Sue.

Further to this, encouraging pupils to wash their hands does not need to be an uphill battle for teachers. Dealers should include products in their portfolio which make hand washing fun for children. There are many different types of product out there which do this, one of which is a stamp which imprints a picture of a germ on the children’s hands and doesn’t disappear until they wash their hands on multiple occasions! This is the time for dealers to get creative with their ranges and show schools how they can make their lives easier.

TURNING TO TECHNOLOGY

Schools have already had to rely heavily on technology as remote leaning was put in place during the last few months of school closures. However, it is likely that, as they return, they will need it just as much. “With schools being encouraged by the government to fully reopen in September, teachers must start thinking about how they can safely bring back students into a, typically, crowded environment,” says Simone Martorina, VI business manager at Epson.

“Striking a balance between engaging children in the classroom while abiding by social distancing rules will be essential to making this a success. However, keeping pupils further apart in classrooms also raises the significant challenge of ensuring every child can adequately see what the teacher is presenting at the front of the room.”

Simone explains how technology can help ease problems that might occur when children cannot gather around a screen as they might have before. “Many schools currently use flat screen displays, which can be difficult for students sitting further away to read from. In comparison, projectors allow users to scale up screen sizes without losing clarity, making the content more accessible to everyone in the room. This means lessons can be more memorable, inclusive and collaborative for everyone.”

Often, lesson time is spent encouraging group collaboration and team work. With the restrictions on social distancing, and the need to be able to work remotely if required, products which enable collaboration despite these barriers will be sought after by schools. “With many children ‘out of practice’ due to months of learning from home, solutions which allow students to share ideas, contribute to group work and remain part of the team remotely are key. Schools could consider document cameras, which offer users an opportunity to share a projected live view of 3D objects without crowding around or having to pass the object between them,” suggests Simone.

KEEPING TRADITION

Despite the surge in popularity of using technology in the classroom, more traditional teaching methods still remain just as important. To prevent the spread of transmission of COVID, limiting the chances of cross-contamination is of high importance so the sharing of stationery will need to be limited and children will need to just use their own.

This serves as an opportunity for dealers to be pushing their more traditional lines as staff and pupil look to get personal stationery. “This is going to be a back to school season like no other,” Pentel marketing manager, Wendy Vickery, says. “For a start, we know that the latest public health advice to schools is that for frequently used items, such as pens and pencils, it is recommended that staff and pupils have their own items that are not shared. This has implications for teachers, pupils and parents alike – the most obvious being a greater degree of freedom to select products of their own choosing.”

The back to school offering should include pens, mechanical pencils and leads, erasers, highlighters, fabric, permanent and whiteboard markers, correction products, display books and a filled pencil case. For creative classes there are oil pastels, colouring pens and pencils, pigment liner pens and pens for hand lettering and modern calligraphy.

“Back to school is always a crucial time of year for our customers, as well as for teachers and students,” Wendy adds. “This year, more than ever, it’s important to have the right offering to win business from the many end-users who will be self-selecting for the first time.

“We recognise that businesses are nervous, and don’t want to over-commit; our advice is to offer customers a good selection of quality products, so that teachers and pupils can find equipment they can rely on.”

Although, for some dealers, selling into schools may never have been considered an option, the world has changed dramatically since the beginning of the year and dealers should change their thinking too. Schools need a helping hand, now more than ever, as they are forced into a period of unprecedented change - and dealers can be the ones to offer that helping hand.