Covid-19: Outside learning can be a breath of fresh air for students

Pictured outside in the fresh air observing Global Outdoor Classroom Day are Muckross Park College students, from left, Maeve Kernan, Olivia O’Donnell, Ava Maleady and Milly Eustace sitting on 100% biodegradable Popchairs. Picture: Mark Stedman

Lessons learned about the design of schools following the 1918 flu pandemic have been forgotten in the last 40 or 50 years, UCD’s Orla Hegarty tells Jess Casey, with many children being educated in prefabs and school buildings which lack cross-ventilation.

COMBINING fresh air with education during a health crisis is not a new concept — open-air schoolrooms were present throughout Europe and America amid pandemics in the early 20th century.