Where schools in Street currently stand on a return of pupils

Following the recent announcement from the government about a possible return of pupils to schools from June 1, staff at schools in Street have been busy preparing for this.

Keeping children and staff safe is a priority, with challenges including how to teach with social distancing and how to arrange play times, and school drop-off and collection.

Crispin, Brookside, Hindhayes and Elmhurst have all informed parents on where they stand on the matter, and how preparations are going.

Crispin

At Crispin, Years 7 to 9 will not be returning to school this academic year, with Year 10s taking part in academic tutorials where a small number of pupils will discuss progress with teachers.

In a letter to parents, head teacher Paul Reddick said: "However, this still leaves a wide range of issues for us as a school around such areas as health and safety, transportation, staff availability and when and how it will be safe for students to return to school and how we could maximise the effectiveness of such support.

"Additionally, all of this will be set against the prevalence of Covid-19 and our growing understanding of the scientific issues that are relevant to us.

"The vast majority of learning for students will continue to take place on a remote basis. Now that we have some greater certainty regarding the situation until the end of the academic year we will be reviewing this learning provision.

"Probably the key area for us to enable students to be as successful as possible will involve ascertaining where students are and the next steps they need to take to maximise their learning.

"We are pleased that a large number of students have been engaging in the learning set to date in such a positive way.

"In terms of any face to face contact with Year 10 our paramount concern is the safety of students and staff, and by implication, the safety of the families of all of those who will be in school at any time.

"It has been suggested, particularly for primary schools, of classes having 15 students in. Firstly, if school provision is to be along the lines of academic tutorials then this would be a very large number.

"Secondly, in the event of some limited school opening, if we were to maintain social distancing it

would be impossible with 15 students in our classrooms."

Brookside

At Brookside, they are working towards bring in children from June 1 in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 with between six to eight students in a class.

In a letter to parents, head teacher Brian Walton said: "Clearly, we would only ever open the academy to the children and our staff at the point that it was safe to do so, in accordance with the published guidance and the whole team will be doing everything they can to have this in place by Monday June 1.

"We are looking towards further government scientific guidance about this. We will have detailed risk assessments in place and will plan for safe social distancing, staggered pick-ups, drop-offs and movement around the school site, though I must stress this is a very challenging task.

"As a community you will all have different viewpoints on coming back into school, some of you will be more confident in your decision to send your child/ren back to school and naturally some of you will be worried and anxious about children returning.

"As a senior-leadership team, we have spoken at length about how important the family aspect of our academy has always been – and that this has never been more important than during these challenging times.

"As we expand our provision, we understand that what we are asking is that you all extend your family, in terms of the risks from Covid-19, to a wider group.

"We will ensure that we reduce mixing groups during the school day and will have processes in place to keep socially distanced at drop-off and pick-up times. We will need your full support in this endeavour.

"We are very pleased that the government has chosen to mirror the stance that we had already planned to take if schools re-opened before the end of the current academic year, which is that there will be no fines for non-attendance at school."

Elmhurst

Elmhurst are starting to put plans in place regarding the possible opening of the to Year 6 pupils.

Last week there was a meeting with the co-chairs of governors, the leadership team and the Year 6 team.

The junior school says it would hope that it will have something in place to share with parents by the middle of this week, at the earliest.

Hindhayes

At Hindhayes, they are currently working on a plan to enable some of their children to return to school from June 1.

In a letter to parents, head teacher Kate Nester said: "At Hindhayes there are not enough classrooms or teaching spaces to accommodate all of the children in Reception and Year 1 if all of the children and families decided to come back to school.

"We cannot split 150 children down into groups that are no more than 15 and have enough rooms for them to be in.

"If all of the families in Reception decided that they wanted to return, we would. This would mean that we would then have to reach out to another setting to ask them to welcome our Year 1 children into their school.

"If this was the case we could not guarantee that they would be with a teacher that they knew, as their class teacher would be teaching the reduced Reception classes at Hindhayes. Nor could we guarantee that the children would be with all of their friends.

"While the government are still saying for those of us who can, the advice continues to be to work from home, why is that not still the advice for children?

"Those who can to learn from home should. I know lots of you have worked really hard over the last two months to support your children through the home learning resources on our website.

"This support will still be there for you if you choose to continue to work and home learn with your family.

"All for the sake of two weeks of disrupted education for young children who need consistency more than ever at this time, I think I know what I would do given the choice."