Life Under Lockdown – Lansbury Lawrence Primary School

Last week I spent a day documenting Lansbury Lawrence Primary School in Tower Hamlets. I was intrigued to see what life was like on the Covid frontline and how restrictions were implimented. It also happened to be Keyworker Week.

The classes are in “bubbles” so teachers and children from the same class do not need to mask up, unless the teachers are in communal areas like the dinner hall.

I started with breakfast club at 8am, then I photographed the parents bringing their children to school, emerging through the fog. The first thing they have to do is sanitise their hands. Then it was a staff weekly briefing, online of course, from separate rooms. The staffroom had been repurposed as a music room and there were big X’s on the seats so staff don’t sit down. Another room is used as a staffroom with a through-flow of air and a table each, socially distanced.

There are different entrances and exits for classes to go out for breaks and children have their own box of sports equipment and games to play outside. The corridors are cold as winter begins to bite and windows have to remain open.

Lunchtime was forensic, with bubble tables cleaned down between each sitting and classes alternating between packed lunches in classrooms and hot meals in the canteen. All the staff wore masks or face shields. Meals are delivered to children who need them at home.

The day ended with an online school assembly.

Then home time!

All images © Jess Hurd

Images available to license.

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