Wallet. Keys. 10p in case I need to phone somebody.
That was the checklist of essentials for my jacket pocket every time I left the house as a teenager.
The 10p piece was eventually replaced by a two-bit phone (then its increasingly sophisticated successors), but it was always a triumvirate of essentials.
Then 2020 happened, and three became four: now, trips to the school, supermarket or swimming pool also required a face mask. Countless abrupt about-turns were made by people who had headed out and then suddenly realised they’d forgotten that little piece of cloth or plastic needed to gain entry to wherever they were going.
In Scotland, for those who work or study at a secondary school, the expanded morning checklist really took effect from Monday 2 November 2020, when new rules requiring the wearing of face coverings in classrooms came into place for staff and S4-6 students.
Those rules were amended and expanded over time, such as in April 2021, when it was announced that face coverings were to be worn “at all times” after the Easter break by all students and staff in Scottish secondaries.
Today, 16 months later, rules on masks in classes have ended: face coverings are still required in secondary school thoroughfares, but no longer in classrooms.
There will be those who rejoice at this big step back towards something approaching pre-Covid school life, at being able to see the faces of students and fellow staff, at not having glasses steam up, at not needing to keep reminding 2B to pull their masks over their noses, at the rationale for this change being that the pandemic is not quite the threat it was.
But, while it is a simple physical act to remove a mask, the psychological leap may be far harder for some. A habit ingrained over 16 months will have reassured many, providing a sense of control and protection in the midst of an epochal crisis.
This is a big day, then, and some will find the transition harder than others, for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps they have underlying health concerns or fear that another highly infectious Covid strain may be just around the corner, or worry that measures are being eased just as the exam season looms over the horizon - a period of self-isolation is particularly unwelcome when potentially life-changing exams are imminent.
First minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that the decision was taken amid “reducing case rates for secondary-aged pupils, falling hospitalisation rates across all age categories and the fact that the estimated R rate is below 1 and decreasing”. She has also pointed out that vaccination rates for young people were continuing to increase.
Education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville today described the ending of the need for face coverings in classrooms as a “positive milestone”, but, in truth, emotions in schools around the country will be conflicted today.
Somerville herself said the removal of masks in classrooms “signals the possibility of a brighter future where schools can regain some normality”, but was careful to add that those students and staff who choose to continue to wear face coverings in classes “will be supported in doing so”.
Covid guidance and rules have tended to work better where there is clarity and certainty, but masks in schools now become more of a grey area. How many students will forget about the different rules in different parts of the school, leaving a mask dangling off their wrist when it should be covering their face? How many teens who would feel safer wearing a face covering in class will choose not to do so because none of their peers are?
It seems likely that, as well as in classrooms, face coverings will be worn less in the places where they are still required. Even those striving to follow the changed requirements will at times forget as they move from classroom to corridor. Let’s hope, then, that this highly significant change was, as the government insists, genuinely driven more by scientific advice than political pressure.
As teacher Alan Gillespie wrote in November 2020, just after the requirement for face coverings in classrooms was introduced, masks are uncomfortable, annoying and hamper communication in class, but he’d “rather protect others, and myself, than not”.
The masks have come off in class - but for the safety and consideration of others, teachers will remain canny.
Henry Hepburn is Scotland editor at Tes. He tweets @Henry_Hepburn
You need a Tes subscription to read this article
Subscribe now to read this article and get other subscriber-only content:
