Update from Mr Farrington about possible reopening on 1st June 2020
I’ve had several meetings over the past few days about how to safely re-open the school for the children in F1, F2, year 1 and year 6 from the 1st June. The guiding principle in all these discussions has been to maximise the safety of our children and staff. I am keen to let you know about the school’s plans as they currently stand:
Monday 18th May – Ms Chapleo, Miss Ashurst, Mr Nightingale and I will conduct a site survey to establish how best we can ensure social distancing guidance is observed in school. This will lead to a video being produced by school. This film will illustrate for children, parents and staff the measures we will introduce. This information film will allow parents to make an informed decision about whether they want to send their child to school, or not. Current guidance is clear that parents will face no sanctions should they decide against sending their child to school. I believe this is crucial because whilst we will make every effort to encourage children to remain 2 metres apart, this will prove virtually impossible for our youngest children.
Tuesday 19th May – The film mentioned above will be made available on Dojo and the school website.
Wednesday 20th May – Teachers of children in F1, F2, Year 1 and Year 6 will ring parents to establish if they intend sending their child to school. We do need a definite indication from parents to allow us to plan. We need to put your children into smaller groups than normal which has implications for staffing and space in school.
We will use the rest of the week, as well as half term week, to plan for re-opening. To make planning for re-opening possible, school will be closed to children during half term week (w/c 25th May).
Schools across Transform Trust have made one definite decision. All schools in the trust will open for Year 6 only during the week of 1st June. Being open for one year group only will allow us to test whether the social distancing measures we have introduced are effective. We have chosen to do that with our Year 6 pupils because they will be with us for the shortest amount of time and they should, as our oldest children, be best able to follow social distancing guidance.
As I said earlier, our guiding principle in terms of re-opening is to maximise the safety of our children and staff. This may mean things take longer to organise than we would like but I make no apology for that. I do promise you, though, that I will keep you informed every step of the way.
Stay safe
Shaun