So this week I wanted to explore a really simple question; How easy is it to catch coronavirus outside? I thought it would be of interest to all parents, Forest School fans or not ...yet! The reason being that children generally love to be outside. It's where they go to learn from exploration and discovery so preventing children getting outdoors can be hard work and potentially cause parents a good deal of stress as a result. It's also a really good benchmark for me to check that we have got all the measures in place to reduce the opportunity for the virus to spread. I thought it might be good to put important bits of this blog in bold because sometimes you only have time to read the bones of it.
The evidence:
I think we can all agree that there is a growing consensus that it is safer to be outside rather than inside. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said 'broadly the scientific and medical experts have been clear that there is less likelihood of transmission of this disease outdoors than indoors' A couple of articles I have read https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/us/coronavirus-what-to-do-outside.html and https://inews.co.uk/news/coronavirus-catch-outside-indoors-why-get-covid-19-explained-426628 sited a study in China that found from 7,300 cases there was only 1 case that was connected with being outside and that was a 27 year old man who had spoken to a traveller who had just arrived from Wuhan. 7 days later he had become symptomatic. The virus load also seems to be a factor. Put simply it means the amount of the nasty critters that are blown out in one sneeze/cough for example (common in children!). You need a few hundred to a few thousand to be too much for the immune system to handle. The wind is our friend in this regard so when one of these aforementioned coughs comes along the wind disperses the virus load, a big contributing factor to reducing the risk of spread. Sunny days are also a mitigating factor as UV rays kill the virus which likes cold hard surfaces (such as plastic). Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF School of Medicine says 'the virus doesn't love grass or trees or clothing, I would rate these surfaces as low risk' https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Is-risk-of-coronavirus-transmission-lower-15287602.php . At Forest School higher risk items would include; tools, cooking utensils, fire lighting equipment and the toilet. Everything else that children touch are natural materials.
People are generally further away from each other when they are outside; this is true of children who are generally running around most of the time. However, children do have times where they are close together. For example; hide and seek where you hide together (sardines), potion making in the mud kitchen where you might be next to another witch or wizard or waiting in line for the rope swing which, by the way, children love to do because they see it as a fair way to get a turn. The risk of spread is increased by people standing next to each other for a long time (>15 minutes) like laying your picnic blanket close to someone else's in the park. This is not out of the question at Forest School - sometimes a group of children (usually, but not always, girls) can sit for ages concentrating on a crafty activity. The other scenario that comes to mind is that we usually suggest to children that making a den to have their lunch in is fun. This is usually done in groups of two or three. I think a point to consider is that it's not necessarily the sitting it's the overcrowding that's the problem.
On the subject of overcrowding, this is a great time to link back to last week's blog when I said it would be good to find out whether the rate of infection spread after the spate of protests that have been taking place recently. As a reminder, the question was; would the risk increase due to overcrowded protests or be mitigated because they were outside? As a backdrop to this, my sister sent me a Facebook post to sign up to receiving the latest corona figures for your area which I did and found the site to be really useful. It's COVID-19 Symptom Study https://covid.joinzoe.com/ and it updates using the latest information from researchers at Kings College, London and the NHS. It also has some really good short articles on the latest corona news, for example, 6 tips for protecting your kids from COVID-19, in which they advise outdoor play in small bubbles or hubs for mental well being as much as safety. It bases research on data from the 3.4 million people using their app to record their early symptoms. Their findings were that people who joined the rally and had contact with 10 other people have a 1 in 800 chance of becoming infected. This figure is higher in Manchester at 1 in 400 due to the regional differences in the number of cases.
Ok, so that's some evidence; The articles from the US indicate that people have been left confused about what is safe behaviour outside and I think it is fair to say the situation is the same in the UK. Everybody seems to have a different take on the rules which are changing quickly. What does this mean for Forest School?
Solution 1. We are outside all the time - children will not have to social distance in these small groups but during our morning briefing we will be talking to children as usual about hand washing, the toilet, eating.
Solution 2. We are working in a hub/bubble - adhering to the Government guidance of no more than 16. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings
Solution 3. We have very few surfaces that the virus would stay on and those we have we will wipe down between children.
Solution 4. Children are 5 years and up so in the main will be independent with their own hygiene and eating needs.
Solution 5. Children have their own food - we will not be sharing food, children can cook individually on the camp fire.
I think it's generally good news for Forest Schools on balance as I don't feel like we will be changing much from a normal session, we are just making adaptations.
It's important to say that we are aiming for children to have free play and I mean free play in every sense; not stopped at every twist and turn to put in another risk reducing measure. We are working hard to get all the measures in place beforehand and aim for children to hardly notice the changes and just to concentrate on a glimpse of the old life of just being a kid and playing out. If we manage this then we have succeeded.So let's hope for some sunny days with a bit of breeze!
