I did not sleep much last night. There has been so much planning, so much anxiety, so many unknowns leading in to today, that it was difficult to stop my brain rehearsing everything that had to be done to welcome children back into our nursery and Year R provision.  

We split our classes - half come Monday and Tuesday and the other half Thursday and Friday (Wednesday is a deep clean day).

So this morning we were only due to have half of our Year R cohort. As it turned out, we had a few last-minute drop-outs and we ended up with only nine children in the classroom. 

Coronavirus: Reopening schools

The children lined up at the gates as instructed and we had staff dotted along the route into the classroom, beaming big smiles. We expected tears, but what we got from the Year R children was sheer joy to be back. They pretty much skipped in. 

In nursery, we had a few children who were more wary, but we had a big smile and a bubble machine ready to distract them, and we had no issues at all. 

But how did the rest of the day go? Here are five things I learned on our first full day back in EYFS:

1. Social distancing is impossible

We sat the children down and explained the rules and they all nodded along. And then they all promptly forgot about them.

The trouble is, though children this age can articulate the rules and even understand them to a degree, they do not have the self-regulation to keep at it. 

We realised quickly that constantly reminding them was a waste of time and that it actually would make our attempts at normalising the environment worse.

So we did what we could: for example, instead of a water tray we have five individual buckets of water spaced 2m apart. We set out chairs 2m apart for our picnic lunch outside - and the children accepted this and found it all very exciting. 

But for the rest of the time, we decided they were in their bubble and, with parental consent, they inevitably have mixed with each other as they normally would, despite us engineering the provision to try and deter it. 

As for our own distancing from the children, it is the little things that catch you out. Shoelaces, for example: we learned with our key worker children that laces make it impossible for us to distance from the children. And today we realised that crisps are a real issue - we had to go over and open them for the children. 

Easier to predict were instances of tears, accidents and toilet challenges. As a staff, we had already decided that we would break social distance on these occasions. We came to this decision together and it was unanimous. 

2. Anxiety was lower than expected - for us and for them

The children were delighted to be back. We expected a lot of uncertainty and anxiety, but they adapted to what is a very different school environment very easily. 

As for the staff, we, of course, were worried, but our worry was mainly about whether we would be able to ensure that the children were safe and happy. When we saw that they were, this meant our anxiety was much less than expected. Like the children, we were delighted to be back.

I think there has been some really unhelpful media coverage around the school reopenings. I had to switch the television off this morning because the hype around it all was causing so much worry. We have judged the situation on what we have read of the science and how we can make it work, and we feel confident in our provision. 

3. The impact of lockdown on learning will only become clear with time

Today, we could see children were struggling with things they could once do easily. Our hope is that this is like the summer holidays dip - the children can do it, it is just about making them comfortable enough and getting back into the rhythms of school before they can show it.

But we have to also recognise that home learning is incredibly tough, particularly with this age group. To assume that there has been no impact on learning would be to let these children down.

4. Normal EYFS provision is very difficult

Unfortunately, true EYFS teaching is not possible. What we have to do is much more adult-led than we would like and that is normal. We did make some time for discovery learning, but you look around the room and so much is off-limits. 

We have solved some of these issues with things like a bike wipe station - when the children have finished playing with the bikes, they are wiped down and the children help us with that. After they play with the LEGO, that tray gets set aside and cleaned at the end of the day. 

5. There were some lovely EYFS moments that were still possible

Despite everything, we enjoyed our day and so did the children. One of the best bits was storytime - though the children were sat on little “Xs” on the floor, we did storytime the same way as we always did and it felt really great to be back.

Helen Pinnington is early years foundation lead at St Thomas More’s Catholic Primary School in Bedhampton, Hampshire