Hi all,

It was brilliant to welcome back the children to Hawthorns and Spring Brook Lower, last week.

Tomorrow the rest of our schools re-open to pretty much all the children and young people. Unfortunately, we still have a very small number of children who aren’t able to attend as a result of their overlapping and complex medical needs. We’re working hard to support their return.

Can I ask you all to read the documents that have been sent out – especially the Operational Guidance booklet? You can find copies on each school’s website.

These documents have been produced particularly with families in mind.

They help you to understand the changes we have made over the last few weeks. They identify:

• The class or group (and bubble) your child is part of
• The curriculum they will be initially following
• How to enter and exit the building (including car parking protocols)
• How they will use resources and equipment
• Breaktimes, lunchtimes etc.
• Bathrooms and toilets
• How staff will be using PPE (personal protective equipment), including the use of masks in communal areas
• The principles of social distancing and hand hygiene
• Our first aid and medical procedures (including information on how the school will respond if we have a suspected outbreak)
• What your responsibilities are (as a family) if someone in your household has either a suspected or a confirmed case of Coronavirus
• Tracing and testing procedures

Please support the school/college staff with these significant changes – lots of work has been carried out to ensure all our buildings are as Covid secure as possible. Chatting the changes through with your child will really help.

I’m also pleased to be able to inform you that our post 19 centre will start to re-open from tomorrow. Horizons will open with a restricted number of young people, but John and the team are looking to extend the number of young people (and the number of days each individual can access) over the next few weeks. If we all act as responsibly as possible, we can move to a new normal, sooner rather than later.

Shorter than usual today – I’ll try and see everyone at some point this week – bubbles allowing!!

Best wishes,

Graham

You can find all Graham’s previous updates and blog entries here