Agenda item

Sarah Kerr asked the Executive Member for Children's Services the following question:

 

Question

Like many parents right now, I am feeling quite nervous about the prospect of sending my young children back to school.  Socially distancing children is not easy, and many of us know from experience how easy it is for various illnesses to get transmitted.  Many parents will not feel confident yet that the school environment is safe for them, their family and school staff.  How is WBC planning to approach this issue?

 

Minutes:

 

Question

Like many parents right now, I am feeling quite nervous about the prospect of sending my young children back to school.  Socially distancing children is not easy, and many of us know from experience how easy it is for various illnesses to get transmitted.  Many parents will not feel confident yet that the school environment is safe for them, their family and school staff.  How is WBC planning to approach this issue?

 

Answer

Firstly I would like to say that every school will do a risk assessment and they will decide whether they are ready to open or not.  As you are aware no school is being forced to open; it is up to the individual school to decide if they are going to open and for them to arrange the schooling for the individual students.  Children’s Services are in daily contact with the headteachers and are working with them on developing a response to ensure that the emerging guidance is implemented in advance of opening the school.

 

The latest scientific advice from Government is that children of all ages have less severe symptoms than adults if they should contract the virus and there is a great deal of confidence that younger children are less likely to become unwell if infected with the virus.  However it is up to the parents if they want to send their children back to school or not and I think that is the correct way of doing it.  If a parent is worried and does not feel confident then they can keep their children at home.

 

We will be working with schools to manage limited attendance and will be creating small teaching groups of no more than 15 students so that they can maintain strict social distancing.  That means that we will have, for example, staggered drop off and pick ups, lunch and break times will be different so that children in different teaching groups will not mix.

 

We will also be supporting schools to implement additional protective measures.  We will be helping them with cleaning materials and equipment necessary.

(At this point in the meeting the connection with Councillor Clark was lost)

 

Supplementary question

I did not hear all of the answer.  I heard a lot about whether it is safe or not for children to go back.  My concern is not just about the virus but about the mental health of our children.  What I specifically did not catch anything of was how families who choose not to send their children back to school - what support is going to be there?  I appreciate that a lot of that comes from the schools but I am assuming that the Council is going to be supporting schools to not only look after and teach the children that are going back into school but providing support to those families that have chosen to stay at home as well.  I couldn’t hear any of that I am afraid.

 

Supplementary Answer provided by the Leader of Council

Wokingham Borough Council’s policy on schools is that we have very competent teachers.  We have very competent governors and our role is to support them in doing their job.  We are not going to encourage or penalise parents for putting their children in school and we will support them as well.  So in the context of what we can do we will support the schools in the children being at school, or the children not being at school, and we have a massive job which is identifying the children who may or may not be falling behind to bring them up to scratch.

 

Supplementary Answer provided at the end of the meeting by Councillor Clark

We will continue to work with the headteachers to ensure that those children are being given a good education although they are staying at home.  So they are not going to be forgotten about and as I said before it is a parental choice whether they are going to send the children to school or not and there will be no penalty if they decide to keep them at home.  So I think we have to be sure that there is a good risk assessment at the school but if parents still do not want to send their children it is their decision.  It is also the school’s decision whether they are going to open or not so whether parents decide not to go, or if schools decide not to open, the Council will still be working with the school to ensure that the children are receiving a good education.