As you can imagine
the situation is not the same across the city and a lot of vital information
did not come from the government until very late in the day last week,
including the key worker list which was not available until Friday.
I just want to make
clear that the overriding priority for schools in the shutdown has to be to
minimise the number of staff and students on the premises wherever possible.
Slowing the spread of Covid-19 is the reason for the shutdown and we need to
work together in schools across the city to make this as effective as possible.
We need to make
sure that students are given appropriate levels of work during this time and
offer what support we can to parents, and all of us in education are trying to
work out what this will look like. Sharing good ideas across schools will be
very important. However we must recognise that this is not a normal situation
and we can’t expect education to carry on as normal in these circumstances.
In general, we are
hearing a lot of good examples of schools doing their best to restrict the
number of students attending to those who absolutely cannot stay home. This is
exactly what we need to do in order to have the best chance of reducing
transmission of the virus. Most headteachers have also adopted a collegiate
approach, consulting staff over decisions and making sure that the conditions
of the school are as safe as possible for staff and students.
There are some
cases where we are concerned that schools are not sufficiently minimising the
number of staff in, and one school where we had reports of an unusually large
number of students being in today as well as a large number of staff,
which is of particular concern to the health of both groups and represents an
increased risk of spreading the virus. In general we have been liaising
effectively with the City Council, and the Council has been responsive to
reports from our members where there have been problems, and tell us that they
are getting good responses from the Academy Trusts, by and large.
As a union we are
sharing with our members and school leaders examples of good practice, and
asking members to share with us where there are changes that need to be made.
Our advice to members is to seek to work with school leaders wherever possible
to ensure that students are in small groups and the school is effectively
assessing the risk to staff and students, and if there are problems to raise
this with their rep or the local officers as quickly as possible.
This week we will
undoubtedly encounter a lot of very unusual situations and good communication
will be the key to resolving them as swiftly and amicably as possible. Members
should continue to get in touch with questions, experiences and ideas; and we
are actively seeking to create ways for teachers to share resources which can
provide meaningful activities for students who are being supported either in
school or at home.
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