Dear Parents
One of the concerns many people have about the coronavirus is the perceived lack of communication and the resulting lack of clarity about the future development of the disease, and how people should behave. Apparently Mr Johnson will be taking a stronger personal lead in coming days to reassure everyone (as much as possible).
We are of course subject to government guidance but I thought it might help to reassure parents and others if I told you that we are thinking very hard about how we would handle school closure.
First of all, we are unsure whether independent schools will be compelled to close or whether it will be optional. I suspect it will be a blanket instruction to all schools. Even if it remains optional, I would want to take a cautious approach – but would certainly canvas parents to get your views.
Second, in the likely event of a quite lengthy closure, we would ensure continued learning through lots of online activity. The obvious way to do that is through email contact, with work being set, returned, marked etc. via email. For obvious reasons, we would wish to avoid using the post and it would therefore be really helpful if you had access to a scanner. Basic scanners can be bought very cheaply indeed, and if at all possible – once closure is announced – you might like to acquire a scanner if you don’t already own one. Alternatively, scanner apps can be found readily for use with phones and I think that should work well too.
Thirdly, and a little more creatively, we aim to use Skype, WhatsApp and even set up our own YouTube channel to make sure we stay in touch and children are not missing learning. I suspect we might be facing a very long lay-off and we need to do all we can to keep the momentum going. If you have any ideas about other things we could do, let me know.
Fourthly, it might be possible, subject to sensible medical advice, to arrange small groups of children meeting in school with a teacher on a regular basis. That would be up to parents, of course, but if managed well (maintaining distance, cleaning, regular hand-washing etc.) it might be possible. As a small school, we are more able to contemplate that than most other schools. We will take advice on this.
Fifthly, although school would be closed, learning would continue and we would regard children as still being full-time students during a period of closure. Staff will be “at work” during normal hours (8.30 am to 3.00 pm). We would ask you to ensure that all work set was completed conscientiously and returned in line with teachers’ expectations. The aim would be to keep children busy with school work. Teachers will be available at all times during set hours on a dedicated phone number and will respond to emails etc.
Finally, we all hope that we can stay open – but in all honesty that now seems very unlikely. One good thing about a school closure is that it gives children the opportunity to read, read and read some more. Reading is the key to learning, so we’d encourage you to give your child lots of time to read good books. Let us know if you would like some ideas for your child, and we would happily help.
In the meantime we continue with our previous protocols around cleaning, hand-washing etc.
If any parents have come across useful insights, ideas etc. from their own context, please get in touch.
Regards
C J Gray
Principal