Dear Parents and Carers,
You have probably hearing the rumours about schools re-opening, and I know that many of you may be anxious about your children returning to school. We are all waiting for the actual Government announcements about their plans for the re-opening of schools and what they will mean. This advice will also include details about social distancing in schools.
As a Special School there are other factors we must consider, and we have started to plan about how re-opening could work in Wilson Stuart. We are very aware of some serious challenges:
- Many of our students need physical support and help and social distancing is not possible.
- Many of our students have underlying health issues that could make infection much more serious for them
We will need to follow public health and NHS guidelines very closely, and this will mean that when needed, staff would have to wear protective equipment such as gloves, aprons, masks and visors.
We would need to keep very close communication daily and have conversations to check that pupils and staff are completely healthy and that they do not come to school if they have any symptoms.
We are planning to take the temperatures of everyone before they enter the school building and throughout the day. Anyone showing fever symptoms will have to be isolated from others and would need to go home.
We are planning to teach in very small groups in classrooms separated from each other.
Students and staff would not mix at break or lunchtimes.
We will be deep cleaning rooms daily.
We can fully understand your concerns, staff are also concerned for themselves.
We will have to wait and see what the Government plans for a return to school say, and we will plan in detail when we know. I will keep you informed of any news and how we will respond at Wilson Stuart when we do know more. I can assure you we will be following all the health advice to keep everyone as safe as is possible in school.
We understand things may be difficult for you at home and would like to thank you for helping us in supporting home learning for your child. We are also very pleased in the way in which all our families have developed such positive relationships with our Outreach Team. Please do get in touch if you need any help or advice, we will do everything we can to help.
Keep safe, kind regards,
Steve Hughes