(Emily)
Minutes:
January was a very difficult start to the term because schools thought they were opening after the Christmas break and then there was a government announcement on first day of school that children would not be returning to school and that learning had to be done remotely. This meant that schools had to rapidly adapt and set up this provision and Emily believes that their response and the quality of the provision has been amazing in many cases. The additional challenge is that schools have had 2 systems going on with some children coming into school such as the vulnerable and those of key workers and for some schools this has been a very high number, with schools having to run a mixture of remote learning and provision in school. Most schools had some element of live interaction with children, and teachers were working incredibly hard to ensure that the provision was of the highest standard with many having to spend some time coming into school to be with the pupils whilst also providing remote provision for the other students. All whilst some staff and pupils were testing positive for the virus with schools having to do the contact tracing and arranging for the appropriate children and bubbles to isolate.
Schools are now preparing to fully reopen from 8th March 2021. All primary children will be expected to return to school full-time on this date. Secondary students meanwhile have to be tested 3 times in school a few days apart before they can attend school full-time. After that there will be twice weekly testing for secondary school children and all school staff at home and it has recently been announced that families of school going children can also be tested. This will result in schools being informed of test results and managing the outcomes with respect to contact tracing etc. There will still, therefore, be a need for remote learning, perhaps for individual children at times or for bubbles.
As with the arrangements for the Autumn term, children and staff will be working in bubbles in school. Schools will be implementing strategies around ventilation, teaching in a socially distanced manner, staggered starts and ends to the school day and lunchtimes to avoid crowding, enhanced cleaning, remote staff meetings.
Staff will be concentrating on identifying gaps in learning as well as being mindful of well-being of both staff and children.
There will be no exams but lots of teacher assessments to identify gaps and assess where the children have got to by the end of the school year. Teachers will be providing grades to exam boards for GCSEs and A levels.
Generally, schools will be a long way from running normally and it will be a long time before things are completely back to normal. Although there will be much gladness amongst pupils and staff to be getting back there will also be some anxieties.
Regarding visitors in schools – in the Autumn term schools could have visitors although they did want to minimise the number and visits had to be done inline with school risk assessments. The Wokingham Schools Improvement team are thinking they will probably not visit schools until September. It is unlikely that visits from SACRE members will be considered until well into the Autumn term.
Catherine suggested it would be really nice if places of worship were able to be proactive in seeking ways to offer support and asked how and when SACRE could communicate with them. This would take the pressure off schools to invite places of worship to come in and instead have the offer sent to them. Catherine can put together a list of contacts and draft an email. Julie suggested that the email could suggest ‘visiting’ the school online or by recording, as physical visits are still not possible. Stephen suggested that this might be something the Hub would like to do as it could benefit the whole of Berkshire
ACTION: Stephen and Angela to bring suggestion to the Hub