11th May 2020
Dear parents/carers
COVID-19 Update 11th May 2020
In response to the Prime Minister’s speech yesterday, we have put together a parental questionnaire in order to gauge confidence levels of a phased return for pupils and parents. We will be working behind the scenes in preparation for a possible return, this will obviously mean many changes to the way we work. Social distancing will be a major challenge, particularly for the younger children, areas will need to be marked out so safe distances can be adhered to. All transactions will need to be done online so no office contact. Parents will need to speak to staff via email the majority of the time. Parents will need to drop children at the gate and not enter the school buildings or gather on the playground. Hygiene levels will be raised, after an initial deep clean, staff will need to clean resources, tables etc many times during the school day, hand sanitisers will be used on entry and exit throughout the day. We will need to follow government guidelines for the wearing of personal, protective clothing which could mean staff, and possibly children wearing masks and gloves. In a nutshell, school will look very different if we are to re-open in the coming weeks.
I joined a webinar led by Paul Whiteman from the National Association for Primary Headteachers last Thursday evening. An online poll during the webinar showed that 90% of the school leaders attending said they did not feel confident that it would be safe to open their schools in the coming weeks. All of us want to get more pupils back into schools as soon as it is safe to do so, we have devoted our lives and careers to the care and education of young people – we do not want to see classrooms empty for a day longer than they need to be but the highest priority is the safety of our whole school community.
We are now waiting to receive more information from government about what a phased reopening might mean for our school. In the short-term, nothing has changed, we will continue as we are with home learning and will provide further information in the coming days and weeks once we are able to do so. This is after all, a “Conditional plan” from the government for a phased re-opening and if it cannot be safely applied in our schools, we will retain the power along with our governing body to make decisions regarding the safety of pupils and staff based on our own individual risk assessments. In the meantime, it would really help us if you could click on the link below and complete the questionnaire in order for us to gauge confidence levels of you and your children.
Many thanks
Paula Blackburn
