Author: Mr Roundtree

We’re still planning for how we might open up our schools more widely. As we said to you yesterday, the process of opening up will be slow and safe.

Heads of School are working through a very helpful document produced by Leeds City Council – this provides lots of prompts to make sure our plans are comprehensive and robust. Once this is produced, our governors will scrutinise the plans.

All this means that a dramatic re-opening on Monday 01 June isn’t realistic. It’s even more challenging because there remains a lot of uncertainty about the best course of action. The government updated its guidance for educational settings yesterday (frustratingly, they don’t indicate what or where the updates are), and this advice is due to be updated again:

This guidance is applicable to 31 May 2020 and will be reviewed before 1 June 2020.

A separate government document presenting actions for schools was also updated yesterday. The introduction to this documents does make clear that schools re-opening is not definite (we’ve added the bold):

As a result of the huge efforts everyone has made to adhere to strict social distancing measures, the transmission rate of coronavirus has decreased. We therefore anticipate, with further progress, that we may be able, from the week commencing 1 June, to welcome back more children to early years, school and further education settings.

We will only do this provided that the five key tests set by the government justify the changes at the time, including that the rate of infection is decreasing. As a result, we are asking schools, colleges and childcare providers to plan on this basis, ahead of confirmation that these tests are met.

This uncertainty is frustrating and unhelpful for you – we’re sorry about that. However, you can hopefully appreciate the difficulties we’re facing.

In the longer quote (above), please note the reference to social distancing. Thanks to those of you who emailed us to support the strict approach we’re taking, as outlined yesterday: If we have reasonable grounds to believe a family is not following the government’s message, we will ask you to collect your child and remain away from school for a period of time. We’ll continue to do this after half-term, too.

Moving on…

• Did your child wake up at a good time this morning to get going for the day ahead?
• Is your child having regular meals and drinking enough water?
• Has your child enjoyed some reading in a quiet space?

These prompts, and more, are in a really nice checklist for your child which promotes healthy routines. We’ve mentioned it before, but this is one of our favourite resources because it’s so simple, so we thought it was worth a second mention.

Finally today, we’re approaching the Summer half-term. Just like at Easter, we’ll take a break from the daily home learning tasks and instead present a menu of activities – these are all optional, so your child can do as many (or as few) as you like -make this work for you all. Look out for that later in the week.

We hope you had a nice weekend, perhaps enjoying a walk or even – since it’s now allowed – two walks! That’s provided you maintain social distancing guidelines, of course.

Our first message of the week has three parts…

Lockdown

The government’s message about who you can have social contact remains as it was before: you should only have contact with members of your own household:

You must continue to stay home except for a limited set of reasons but – in line with scientific advice – can take part in more outdoor activities.

In nearly all situations, this means you should not visit friends or family, and it means friends and family should not visit you.

Our staff are working in school to keep it open for children of critical workers and for those children who might be vulnerable. The following message is for you if child is currently coming to school:

Opening schools more widely

Thanks to all of you who completed the survey about opening schools more widely from 01 June 2020. Your answers have been really helpful to enable us to plan ahead. Based on your answers, for example, it’s clear that pupils numbers will at least double, and that’s just for those whose parents are key workers.

This backs up something we said last Thursday: the headlines that children from Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 will all return on Monday 01 June is very different to the likely reality. It’s possible that some of the following will apply (and this isn’t an exhaustive list):

• just one of those year groups returns to school
• the school day isn’t a full day and/or the school week isn’t a full week
• the whole year group does not return together
• your child will be taught by a different teacher and in a different classroom
• the curriculum is reduced
• school dinners would be different

All the Sphere Federation leaders met this morning and we’re all agreed: we will open our schools to more children in a safe way, and this will mean it’s a slow, secure way back to full opening.

Leeds City Council have helpfully provided a risk assessment that we can work through to help us to continue to plan ahead. This document alone contains well over 225 points to consider or actions to take. However, it’ll help us to make sure that the plans we put in place will be thorough and keep our children’s safety at the forefront of our minds.

(You can also keep our children’s safety at the forefront of your mind by remembering to socially distance, of course.)

Living and learning during lockdown

Living and Learning is the name for all the teaching and learning we do around Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE). Each week in school, we’ve a Living and Learning statement. I make choices about my money… is our statement this week. One of the Sphere Federation Health Leaders writes:

This Living and Learning statement helps to consider different money choices. You might want to ask your child what they would do if they were given £5. They might say spend it, save it, buy a gift for someone, give it away, lend it to someone? Would they do the same if they: Found it? Earned it? Were given it as a gift? Had more money or less money?

If you’d like to cover this subject further, watch MoneySense Mondays and use the MoneySense home learning bundles to explore key money topics while learning at home.

Remember, this could be an addition or alternative to a home learning task that your child’s teacher sets for them each day.

Yesterday, we sent two messages to you. The first set out a chronology of events of the week and presented to you some of the possibilities about how our schools might begin to re-open. To help us with this, we sent a second message, which contained a link to a short survey. Please complete this survey – we need your responses by 5pm on Sunday 17 May.

The survey asks three main questions:

Are you a key worker whose child will definitely be attending school after half term?

We don’t want to start making plans to re-open for particular year groups and then discover we have more children of key workers needing a place. This wouldn’t be safe.

We need to know this because we need to be able to prioritise the children of key workers. 

If you think your child is vulnerable in any way, will you send your child to school after half-term if we can offer a place?

The government has a definition of what ‘vulnerable’ is. However, if you feel like you’ve a genuine concern about your own child, please tell us. We can’t guarantee we can support your child more, but we will try.

We need to know this because we will try in some way to meet the needs of children (in any year group) who might be particularly vulnerable, especially in the current situation.

Please note we can’t guarantee this and we may have to assess each individual circumstance and always with the goal of staying safe for everyone.

If we’re able to offer your child a place, will you send your child to school?

This question is open to everybody – not just key workers or parents of children who may be vulnerable, and not just parents of children in the years groups the government has set out as a priority.

We’re asking this so we can try to plan ahead.

We really do need as many people as possible to tell us this information – thanks for helping us to help our children and our staff to stay safe.

On Sunday, the Prime Minister announced ‘the first sketch of a road map’.

On Monday, the government published its COVID-19 recovery strategy, and provided schools with two documents: Actions for education and childcare settings to prepare for wider opening from 1 June 2020 and Coronavirus (COVID-19): implementing protective measures in education and childcare settings.

On Tuesday, Heads of School and I met to talk through the detail set out in those documents so we could begin to explore how our schools can provide what the government asks us to do. These discussions have been continuing throughout the week.

On Wednesday, the Department for Education’s chief scientific adviser suggested the government guidance on safety is a “draft”, and will be reissued after further consultation with Public Health England. If this is the case, and the guidance changes, it leaves us with little time and lots of questions in order to try to meet the government’s aim to re-open.

Reassuringly, Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, yesterday acknowledged the need for flexibility:

We need to make sure that schools have the flexibility to work within these guidelines to make the proposals work for both staff and for children.

And so…

On Thursday, we’d like to keep you updated about some of the possibilities that we have discussed. This is not an exhaustive list, but provides an idea of the range and difficulty of the conversations that we’ve been having. Nothing here is definite  – no final decisions have been made – but we want you to be aware that the headlines aren’t quite the same as what could be the reality in a few weeks’ time.

On Monday 01 June, we will not re-open for children other than those of key workers and those who may be more vulnerable in some way – this is the same as what we’re doing now.

We are working towards some sort of re-opening, and it might be as early as Tuesday 02 June. However, it’s possible that some of the following will apply:

• although the government talks about children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 returning, just one of those year groups returns to school
• the school day isn’t a full day and/or the school week isn’t a full week
• the whole year group does not return together
• your child will be taught by a different teacher and in a different classroom
• the curriculum is reduced
• school dinners would be different

When we plan for some children returning, we’ll very closely consider how we can continue to provide the best home learning activities that is practically possible.

Throughout this period, we’ve tried to communicate as much as possible with you to help you to prepare, and that’s why we’re presenting these possibilities. We know the fact they’re just possibilities might be frustrating for you when you’re trying to plan ahead, including whether you’re able to return to work, but the safety of pupils and staff has to be paramount.

To help us plan, there will be a short survey to you – look out for that today or tomorrow.

As always, we’ll keep you updated as our plans develop and when further guidance from the DfE is released. All of this will be done to make sure children, families and staff all stay safe.