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We interviewed Yolanda Requena, SEK-Ciudalcampo school doctor and COVID-19 coordinator at SEK Education Group.
QUESTION.- How would you define the academic year that just ended?
ANSWER.- The truth is that I would define it as the year of a thousand emotions. After a summer of a lot of work planning protocols, modifying the facilities and adapting the operation of the school day for everyone’s safety, we started the term with anxiety and uncertainty because we did not know what was going to happen once school began. But at the same time we were very excited to see the children after so many months.
In autumn / winter we experienced moments of great tension, sadness and anguish as the “waves” advanced and members of the SEK Community were directly affected by illness, lockdowns / quarantines and unfortunately, some losses of our loved ones.
But finally, when the numbers showed us that due to the nature of the infections among children and all the measures we were taking, in our schools we were handling the situation quite well, we felt relief, hope and tremendous joy to be surviving this difficult year.
Q.- What was it like to work for the school’s health services?
A.- At first we did not know what to expect, because everyone thought that we would have to close the school in the first month. The protocols and regulations of the Ministry of Health and the Departments of Health / Education of the different autonomous regions were constantly changing those first weeks and we had to adapt daily. But the medical services, together with our Public Health advisers, worked tirelessly to control and prevent the cases that occurred in our educational community from spreading within the school. Fortunately, the official protocols were strengthened and it was easier and more agile to manage the cases that occurred.
In any case, we have to remember that not everything has been COVID-19 in schools and medical services continued to attend to injuries / illnesses that naturally occur in schools. In the Ciudalcampo infirmary, for example, between María Pellicer, the nurse and I have attended 10,564 medical visits not related to COVID-19 throughout the year. There have been many days of splinting a wrist fracture, giving medication for an allergy and reassuring a child with an anxiety attack in the middle of the 25 calls to families to isolate a class before the coaches left … yes, remembering those days, the truth is that there have been quite stressful moments.
Q.- And the students, teachers and families, how have they experienced it?
A.- Obviously, everybody’s experience is different, but I can say that most of the families have been extremely understanding and patient with all the protocols and isolations that they have had to endure and that have helped us keep the virus out of our schools. But I know that there have been families that have had a very bad time, with very difficult situations and my thoughts are with them.
The students have been real champs, especially the youngest ones, who with the constant reminders from their teachers, even without fully understanding the seriousness of the situation, have respected all the rules with a commendable naturalness.
Finally, I would say that the teachers have had an extremely difficult year since they have not only carried their normal workload, but have also assumed the responsibility for intermittent online classes, substitutions for their sick or quarantined colleagues, their own self-isolations and that of their children / partners, the constant reminder to children to follow the rules and all of the above added to their own fears and uncertainties.
Q.- There is a lot of talk about the role of schools in containing the pandemic over these months. What is your assessment?
A.- Yes, I agree. It is interesting that at first we believed that schools would be a major source of contagion. But due to the mode of transmission and contagion of SARS-CoV-2 among children and the measures adopted in schools, these have helped to contain the transmission. We have to remember that 99% of the infections that we manage from schools originated in the family setting. Therefore, having the children attend school in person, with low transmission within the school community and with strict safety and hygiene measures, has helped to make containment more efficient than if we had left the children studying online at home and in the afternoons socialising with other children in their neighbourhoods, as would be expected, without any restraint / safety measures.
Q.- What prospects do you have for the next academic year?
A.- The hope for the near future is that we will gradually return to normality. But I can assure you that it will not be this forthcoming 2021-22 academic year during which we will have to continue to maintain the safety, hygiene and social measures that we put in place last year with few changes. As the situation improves, we will follow the instructions of the public health authorities and hope that some of the measures adopted this year will be cancelled (the day we can come to school without masks, I think we will really have a party!).
Q.- What has this academic year taught about the next one?
A.- I would say that this year we have learned, in a very direct way, that collaboration between students, families and the School, together with the attitude and responsibility of each one of us, is essential if we want to improve the situation.
