How to Reduce the Student Density at School for Physical Distancing
As schools are usually empty at weekends, it is possible to reduce the density of students by keeping schools open on Saturday and Sunday. In theory, the density will be reduced by 28% (2/7=28%). For example, if a school has 5 classrooms and 5 classes, then divide students evenly into 7 classes. The new 7 classes are named as 1 to 7 respectively. A weekly schedule for the classes will be:
Monday: 1,2,3,4,5
Tuesday: 2,3,4,5,6
Wednesday: 3,4,5,6,7
Thursday: 4,5,6,7,1
Friday: 5,6,7,1,2
Saturday: 6,7,1,2,3
Sunday: 7,1,2,3,4
In the schedule, each class has five days at school and two days at home every week as usual.
If a school has more than 5 classes, a simple way of making a schedule is to choose 5 classes and to divide them into 7 classes, and then to repeat the process of choosing and dividing. It is practical to divide students unevenly into classes if classrooms have different sizes.
Similarly, we could cut down the density of students at school even further by adding three months of the school holidays to the schedule. As a cost more school staff would be needed.
