The Colegio San Agustín de Valladolid has modified its facilities, readjusted its rules of internal coexistence, and proposed various initiatives to make the center a safe space and complicate any transmission of the pandemic.

New protocols, modification of old customs such as those relating to the schedules and forms of entry to the school of students and teachers, gel dispensers and use of disinfectants, masks and social distance, painting and signage of safe areas, distribution of brochures with instructions… All actions are few when the good for which they are proposed is of the utmost importance: to protect  the health of people in the school environment.

We look at the Colegio San Agustín of the Augustinian Recollects in Valladolid to better understand the great news brought by the new school year 2020-2021 that the week has begun.

The restart has been after the longest time away  from the classrooms that is remembered in the modern Spanish education system: in March the classrooms closed in their physical form and opened in virtual form, with the students in their homes. Since then, with few exceptions such as special exam preparation, students have not returned to school until the same week, after six months.

While gel dispensers or marks on the ground for displacement become common to the eye, other previously normal objects for now will have to wait to appear intensely: balls, toys, pedagogical objects that involve passing it from one student to another…

The arrival of the 900  students per time slot has taken place that first week in a model way. The familieshave collaborated, the teachers have prepared for this moment and everything has gone as marked by the security protocol. The students have been congratulated by management for their collaboration, responsibility, and solidarity.

Religious festivities such as the Nativity of our Lady (September 8) and St Nicholas of Tolentino(September 10) have even been celebrated in some way. On this day the school community was also presented with the beginning of the celebrations of the Fourth Centenary  (1621-2021) of the Province of San Nicolás de Tolentino of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, the titular entity of the Colegio San Agustín..

Students have adapted to the regulations and the courtyards are seen every day with organization thanks to the collaboration of all, who know that it is largely up to them to effectively stop the preferred routes of the virus to transmit. It is a solidarity task, and the students at the Schools of the Augustinian Recollectslearn solidarity from the first moment they enter the center.

The course has begun with the application of strict rules for the current face-to-face  class scenario. They affect the entrance and exit to and from the exterior entrances, classrooms, dining room and after-school activities.

Students must be with a mask, they will not be able to bring to the School any non-essential objects, they will have their own bottle of  water and antiseptic gel. Parents will not be able to access it from a point called a “safety zone”. Students will wait in the courtyards with a safety distance between them and will not be able to stay in hallways or spaces other than the classroom or courtyards. Classrooms will be  ventilated with a constant frequency and arrivals and departures will be staggered.

In any case, all regulations and protocols are already prepared if it is necessary to move on to scenarios 2 and 3, which include the suspension offace-to-face classes to a greater or lesser extent and the return to virtual education from homes.