In August, the Government announced that it was going to provide CO2 monitors for all state-funded education settings from September. Teaching unions have been asking for more ventilation approaches as children return to education after the summer break, and the CO2 monitors are part of DfE measures to reduce COVID 19 transmissions in schools.

I am familiar with CO2 monitors because we now have them in the rooms in our office building as part of our own workplace COVID precautions. We also keep the windows open. I find the presence of the monitors very comforting. They do their job well – if an extra person enters a room, or if a number of people are talking in a room, the monitor will start to bleep after a little while. It is quite persistent.

Once the bleeping starts there is a flurry of activity. The extra person might leave, or the windows get thrown open even more widely, no matter what the weather.

Sometimes all of the above has happened, and the CO2 monitor still isn’t happy. More bleeping.

I should add that there are never many people in a room at any one time (also part of our COVID safety precautions) – we’re talking 4 or 5 adults.

All of this can be quite funny. Recently one of my colleagues was in a Zoom meeting, while sitting in a room on her own. What’s that bleeping? she asked. You guessed it – all by herself she had set off the CO2 monitor – quite an achievement!

When I heard about the provision of CO2 monitors for education settings, I couldn’t help but wonder how this would work in reality. Will every room where children are learning have one? I imagined a classroom of 30 children, all breathing out (a necessary part of the breathing process) and one extremely persistent CO2 monitor. And a lot of What’s that bleeping…?

As with all things, educators will no doubt rise above the challenges. They, and their children, will get used to the bleeping. Windows will be opened, learning spaces will be bracing, and children will continue to learn.

And with that thought I must go – I can hear bleeping…

I would like to note at the end of this piece that the DfE has said that while nurseries and pre-schools receiving early education funding will be provided with CO2 monitors, childminders have not been included. Please read this post on the Early Years Alliance site for more on this.