A Liverpool school could teach kids outdoors if coronavirus cases worsen in under proposals submitted to the council.
Mab Lane Primary School, near Stockbridge Village, has applied for permission to build an outdoor classroom on the school’s grounds.
According to submissions to the council’s planning department, the school could potentially use the structure to hold lessons outside as a response to higher Covid cases as well as using it to bolster its teaching resources more generally.
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Guidance issued by the government in August this year advised schools that outdoor lessons were one of the measures that should be considered if Covid cases rose past specific levels.
However, it said that outdoor teaching, like other measures such as increased ventilation, should only be done in a way that is suited to weather conditions.
That means it would be unlikely that outdoor teaching would take place in poor weather.
Coronavirus cases in Liverpool and other areas of the country have risen dramatically since the new school year started, however there are now signs that in many areas cases are receding.
The outdoor classroom would include woodchip flooring and seating as well as timber posts and a detachable canopy to cover the teaching area if required.
A report from the school to Liverpool Council said: “The provision of the outdoor classroom will provide the school with a different option for a classroom setting.
“It would also provide the school with the option of having classes outdoors in line with the Department for Education’s August 2021 ‘Contingency Framework’ for dealing with the scenarios where the threshold in Covid-19 cases has been reached.”
Liverpool Council’s planning department will now consider the application.
