September 2020 Return to School: Information for Students, Parents - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

September 2020 Return to School: Information for Students, Parents and Carers

How this presentation is

• rganised

This presentation has been written to provide you with access to all of the Government guidance pertaining to the return of students to school in September. The key guidance is included or referred to and then how Wey Valley Academy (WVA) is addressing the guidance follows on subsequent slides. The presentation uses a simple colour blocking to help you quickly identify if a slide contains Government guidance or information about the WVA response. We hope to have covered all FAQs but it is a complex task and if you still have further questions after reading this please contact the Academy.

Information Colour Coding Key

WVA Timetable T1 2020-21 Extracts from DFE Guidance

A Red header signifies the information is internal academy details A Blue header signifies the information is DFE Guidance Text shown in Italics identifies where guidance is copied directly from Dept of Education (DfE) or Public Health England (PHE) documentation.

September 3rd Thursday INSET Day 1 September 4th Friday INSET Day 2 plus Year 7 Enhanced Transition afternoon invited students only. September 7th Monday Year 7 and Year 11 return September 8th Tuesday All Year Groups in school

WVA: Key dates

DFE September Guidance

Click on the title above to link to the DfE full guidance documents.

Extracts from DFE Guidance

…It is our [DFE’s] plan that all pupils, in all year groups, will return to school full-time from the beginning of the autumn term… …Returning to school is vital for children’s education and for their wellbeing… …Time out of school is detrimental for children’s cognitive and academic development, particularly for disadvantaged children…

Extracts from DFE Guidance

…The risk to children themselves of becoming severely ill from coronavirus (COVID-19) is very low and there are negative health impacts of being out of school… …Given the improved position, the balance of risk is now

• verwhelmingly in favour of children returning to school…

…While our aim is to have all pupils back at school in the autumn, every school will also need to plan for the possibility of a local lockdown and how they will ensure continuity of education…

DFE: Public Health Advice

…The public health advice in this guidance makes up a PHE-endorsed ‘system of controls’, building on the hierarchy of protective measures that have been in use throughout the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak… …The system of controls provides a set of principles and if schools follow this advice, they will effectively minimise risks… …There cannot be a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach where the system of controls describes every scenario…

DFE Public Health Advice

• a requirement that people who are ill stay at home
• robust hand and respiratory hygiene
• enhanced cleaning arrangements
• active engagement with NHS Test and Trace
• formal consideration of how to reduce contacts

and maximise distancing between those in school wherever possible and minimise potential for contamination so far as is reasonably practicable

DFE Public Health: Essential measures

How contacts are reduced will depend on the school’s circumstances and will (as much as possible) include:

• grouping children together
• avoiding contact between groups
• arranging classrooms with forward facing desks
• staff maintaining distance from pupils and other

staff as much as possible

DFE Public Health Advice: Key points

WVA: Response to these guidelines

• Dedicated handwashing zones at entry and exit to Academy and to Zones
• Additional soap and paper towels available in all toilets
• Cleaners working throughout the day cleaning high contact surfaces
• Limiting all visitors to school including parents, unless by prior appointment
• Zones for Year Groups and a new timetable to minimise movement
• Classrooms all stripped and cleaned with forward facing desks

…Schools must work through the below system of controls, adopting measures in a way that addresses the risk identified in their assessment, works for their school, and allows them to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum for their pupils, including full educational and care support for those pupils who have SEND…

DFE Public Health Advice: Key points

DFE System of controls: Prevention

1) minimise contact with individuals who are unwell by ensuring that those who have coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms, or who have someone in their household who does, do not attend school 2) clean hands thoroughly more often than usual 3) ensure good respiratory hygiene by promoting the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach 4) introduce enhanced cleaning, including cleaning frequently touched surfaces often, using standard products such as detergents and bleach

DFE System of controls: Prevention

5) minimise contact between individuals and maintain social distancing wherever possible 6) where necessary, wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) Numbers 1 to 4 must be in place in all schools, all the time. Number 5 must be properly considered and schools must put in place measures that suit their particular circumstances. Number 6 applies in specific circumstances.

7) engage with the NHS Test and Trace process 8) manage confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) amongst the school community 9) contain any outbreak by following local health protection team advice Numbers 7 to 9 must be followed in every case where they are relevant.

DFE System of controls: Response to any infection

In secondary schools, and certainly in the older age groups at key stage 4 and key stage 5, the groups are likely to need to be the size of a year group to enable schools to deliver the full range of curriculum subjects and students to receive specialist teaching. Both the approaches of separating groups and maintaining distance are not ‘all-or-nothing’ options, and will still bring benefits even if implemented partially. Some schools may keep children in their class groups for the majority of the classroom time, but also allow mixing into wider groups for specialist teaching

DFE Advice: How to group children

DFE Advice: How to group children

All teachers and other staff can operate across different classes and year groups in order to facilitate the delivery of the school timetable. This will be particularly important for secondary schools. Where staff need to move between classes and year groups, they should try and keep their distance from pupils and other staff as much as they can, ideally 2 metres from other adults.

WVA Zones

At WVA we will operate a zone system that keeps year groups in set areas for most of the time to reduce contact and mixing. Year Zone 11 MfL and Common room 10 Science Block 9 English 8 Maths 7 Humanities Year NOR Entry Toilets Zone Canteen 11 155 MfL stairway TBA MFL Room 95 10 165 Science rooms external TBA Science Canteen 9 200 English external door TBA English Room 95 8 187 Maths near Sports Hall TBA Maths Main Hall 7 210 Front near Zone TBA Humanities Canteen

WVA 2020: Specialist Rooms

We are able to Zone the school in a way that enables us to keep the specialist rooms such as two Science Labs, Art, Technology, P Arts free for use by students at pre booked times. These rooms will be used as specialist rooms in order to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum with a focus initially on KS4 and their GCSE studies Students will follow a simple one way system and be accompanied to and from these lessons by a member of staff.

WVA 2020: Rooming

The normal rooming protocol has been suspended for 2020-21 due to the coronavirus pandemic and the protective measures required by the DFE guidance (as of 11th July) This guidance requires student movement to be minimised where possible. The following principles, therefore, apply to the 2020-21 rooming whilst under Covid measures:

• Zones : Y7 Humanities, Y8 Maths, Y9 English, Y10 Science, Y11 MfL
• The exceptions are for specialist spaces that are necessary for the effective delivery of a

broad and balanced curriculum (e.g. Food & Nutrition / Music / Technology / Art)

WVA 2020: Rooming

Science labs need to be allocated as a zone due to a lack of overall rooming capacity We are keeping two labs free which means that all science classes can access a practical space at least once in the two-week cycle Efforts have been made to retain consistent rooming for groups in zones. However, this is not always possible due to the complexity of the timetable scheduling in Years 7 & 8 in particular

WVA 2020: Rooming

• Tutor periods will be delivered within the allocated Year Zone.
• In order to ensure rooms can be effectively shared, teachers must:

Clean the board after use Ensure the teacher desk and areas are left in a tidy state, ready for the next colleague Ensure students leave their desks neat and tidy, with the chairs tucked under if there is a student room change Make every effort to maintain clear surfaces so that enhanced cleaning can take place

DFE Advice: Measures within the classroom

…Maintaining a distance between people whilst inside and reducing the amount of time they are in face to face to contact lowers the risk of transmission… …It is strong public health advice that staff in secondary schools maintain distance from their pupils, staying at the front of the class, and away from their colleagues where possible… …Ideally, adults should maintain 2 metre distance from each

• ther, and from children…

DFE Advice: Measures within the classroom

…We know that this is not always possible, particularly when working with younger children… …Similarly, it will not be possible when working with many pupils who have complex needs or who need close contact care. These pupils’ educational and care support should be provided as normal…

WVA 2020: Teaching Styles

This will be different to our normal methods! Teachers will need to stay at the front of the room where possible as guidance for social distancing in schools still applies to adults It will be important to maximise teacher input time but also to balance the need to reintegrate students into the classroom Staff will receive CPD on the most effective method of delivering lessons in this manner.

DFE Advice: Measures elsewhere

Groups should be kept apart, meaning that schools should avoid large gatherings such as assemblies or collective worship with more than one group. When timetabling, groups should be kept apart and movement around the school site kept to a minimum. While passing briefly in the corridor or playground is low risk, schools should avoid creating busy corridors, entrances and exits. Schools should also consider staggered break times and lunch times (and time for cleaning surfaces in the dining hall between groups). Schools should also plan how shared staff spaces are set up and used to help staff to distance from each other. Use of staff rooms should be minimised, although staff must still have a break of a reasonable length

WVA 2020: Measures elsewhere

Assemblies if done, will only involve a single year group Staff room use will be limited and staff responsible for their social distancing. Students will have separate play areas

WVA 2020: Breaks & Lunches

Breaks and lunches will be staggered With Yr 7 and 11 having break and lunch at the same time but in separate areas of the school and then Years 8,9 & 10 also being on break together but again in separate areas of the school. This is to reduce contact. Year groups will have different areas for eating lunch.

WVA 2020: Breaks & Lunches

Year 11 will use Room 95 and Year 7 will use the canteen Year 8 have Richard’s Hall and Year 10 the Canteen and Year 9 Room 95 Separate toilets are being allocated to Year Zones and more details will follow. We request that students bring in packed lunches until further notice to reduce the need to queue for meals. Children requiring Free School Meals will also have a packed lunch at the start of term. Once we have established how well lunchtime is working we will look to introduce “Grab and Go” hot meals.

WVA: End of day – 5-min. stagger

Year 11 will leave school at 3pm followed by Year 10 at 3:05pm and then Yr 7, 8 and 9 (separate exits) at 3:10pm to reduce contact at the end of the day Students must leave the site quickly at the end of the day and avoid congregating in large groups We have contacted Dorset and they are liaising with the Bus companies to try and have dedicated buses available.

DFE: Supporting SEND students

Some pupils with SEND (whether with education, health and care plans or on SEN support) will need specific help and preparation for the changes to routine that this will involve, so teachers and special educational needs coordinators should plan to meet these needs…

WVA: Supporting SEND students

Wherever possible, SEND students will continue to supported in class Seating plans should be used to facilitate distance where possible between TAs and the SEND students they support The Hub will be set to allow for more distancing and face to face seating will not be used Both rooms will be used fully to increase capacity

DFE: School Operations

DFE: Transport

…In many areas, pupils normally make extensive use of the wider public transport system, particularly public buses. We expect that public transport capacity will continue to be constrained in the autumn term. Its use by pupils, particularly in peak times, should be kept to an absolute minimum... …Schools should encourage parents, staff and pupils to walk or cycle to school if at all possible... ..For some families, driving children to school will also be an

• ption…

WVA: Journey to school

Students should not mix with students from other Year groups where possible. Students should not walk into school in large groups Students should avoid public transport if possible We encourage students to walk, cycle or scoot to school If they are being dropped off please use the designated drop off points for their Zone (Site Plans on the School Website)

DFE: Attendance

School attendance will therefore be mandatory again from the beginning of the autumn term. This means from that point, the usual rules on school attendance will apply, including:

• parents’ duty to secure that their child attends regularly at

school where the child is a registered pupil at school and they are of compulsory school age;

• schools’ responsibilities to record attendance and follow

up absence

• the availability to issue sanctions, including fixed penalty

notices in line with local authorities’ codes of conduct

WVA Attendance

We will continue to follow DFE advice in order to improve attendance. A separate letter about attendance will be sent to all parents in September. Students need to be in school as they have missed so much already so maximum attendance is required! Every level of appropriate support will be provided to families in order to ensure students return to school We will be appointing a new Family Liaison Officer to support the work of the Attendance Team in the Autumn

WVA Attendance and Lateness

On arrival at the Academy students will go immediately to their Zone where they will be welcomed by their Head of Year and have t clean their hands. Lesson 1 starts at 08:30 and the attendance register is taken during that lesson. Students arriving late but before 9am should go straight to their Zone where they will be registered. Students arriving after 9am must report to main reception.

DFE: School Workforce

Following the reduction in the prevalence of coronavirus (COVID-19) and relaxation of shielding measures from 1 August, we expect that most staff will attend school… …Individuals who were considered to be clinically extremely vulnerable and received a letter advising them to shield are now advised that they can return to work from 1 August as long as they maintain social distancing…

WVA School Workforce

All staff will return in September. Most staff are already back in school getting everything ready for the students’ return in September. We have lots of new staff (see letter sent on 26th June) starting including two new Vice Principals Mr Lydford and Mr Neill and a new Assistant Vice Principal, Mrs Parkes. Mr Dyer remains a VP and Mrs Ashmore an AVP. The SENCO, Mrs Field, has already started and of course, so has the Principal Mr Russell.

DFE Safeguarding

Schools should consider revising their child protection policy (led by their Designated Safeguarding Lead) to reflect the return of more pupils. Schools must have regard to the statutory safeguarding guidance, keeping children safe in education and should refer to the coronavirus (COVID-19): safeguarding in schools, colleges and other providers guidance.

WVA Safeguarding

During lockdown we have trained all five Heads of Year and all the seven members of the Senior Leadership Team to level 3 Designated Safeguarding Lead status. This means we have a very skilled and well trained safeguarding team ready for September. There is an updated Safeguarding Appendix (Covid 19) which can be found

• n the School website in the Safeguarding section.

All staff have under gone additional Safeguarding training during lockdown.

Academy Operations – other key points

DFE Guidance WVA approach Visitors Details will be kept of all visitors if needed for Track and Trace Catering The kitchen will provide grab and go food to begin with Estates We are compliant with all Estates Risk Assessment and safe re-opening checks Educational Visits These will not take place in T1 & T2. Others are under review School Uniform All students will wear uniform in September Extra Curricular Provision Will need to be risk assessed where relevant but not likely in T1

WVA Fire Plan 2020-21

We will have a fire practice on return and as students are grouped in Zones we can safely get them to the Fire Assembly point which is on the MUGA.

DFE: Curriculum, Behaviour & Pastoral Support

DFE: Curriculum expectations

The key principles that underpin our advice on curriculum planning are:

• education is not optional: all pupils receive a high-quality education

that promotes their development and prepares them for the

• pportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
• the curriculum remains broad and ambitious: all pupils continue to

be taught a wide range of subjects, maintaining their choices for further study and employment.

• remote education, where needed, is high quality and aligns as

closely as possible with in-school provision: schools and other settings continue to build their capability to educate pupils remotely, where this is needed.

DFE: Curriculum expectations

• Teach an ambitious and broad curriculum in all subjects

from the start of the autumn term, but make use of existing flexibilities to create time to cover the most important missed content

• Aim to return to the school’s normal curriculum in all

subjects by summer term 2021

• Plan on the basis of the educational needs of pupils
• Develop remote education so that it is integrated into

school curriculum planning

WVA : Curriculum

The teachers have been working on adapting their Medium and Long term curriculum plans so that they focus delivery

• f material that requires a teacher to be present in the first
• instance. Other work that can be done remotely will be

covered later. This is in case we have a second wave in the winter and need to revert to remote learning again.

WVA : Specific points for KS4

We have written a timetable and planned lessons that will enable students in KS4 to continue with all their options subjects. The vast majority of pupils in year 10 and 11 are expected to continue to study their examination subjects. We have a comprehensive Careers programme planned to support Year 11. We will receive additional information about next year’s GCSE later this summer from OFQUAL (National Exam authority).

WVA : Music and PE

Specific adjustments will be needed for these subjects. The Curriculum Area Leaders (CALs) are developing their plans for safe delivery of these activities. Students will be allowed to wear their PE kit on the days that they have PE. We may have to re assess this if the weather changes. No Hooded tops! This will reduce pressure on changing rooms and improve punctuality to lessons

WVA: Equipment

In order to minimise the need for glue sticks, all curriculum areas that use exercise books will use treasury tags to secure 6 weekly assessments into exercise books Students will need to bring their own equipment to school as we will not be loaning any. They will need as a basic pack: 2 Pens, 2 Pencils, Eraser, 30cm Ruler, Scientific Calculator (ideally the Casio version), Protractor, 1 highlighter and a case to store these items.

WVA: Exercise books

Exercise books will be kept at school Boxes with lids have been ordered for curriculum areas for each class to store books and teacher resources in so that materials can be stored in rooms / zones

WVA: Lessons & changeovers

For the majority of the day students will remain in the class and teachers will move to them. Apart from specialist subjects such as PE. Because of the increase travel staff will need to undertake 5 minutes will be allocated to start & finish planning in every lesson All students will be expected to have a reading book with them so they can continue with a task when waiting for their next teacher.

WVA: Lessons & changeovers

If students are changing rooms within a zone or to a specialist room, they should move quietly and directly to the new rooms. They will be accompanied by a teacher and follow a one way system.

DFE: Behaviour

It is likely that adverse experiences and/or lack of routines of regular attendance and classroom discipline may contribute to disengagement with education upon return to school, resulting in increased incidence

• f poor behaviour.

Schools should work with those pupils who may struggle to reengage in school and are at risk of being absent and/or persistently disruptive, including providing support for overcoming barriers to attendance and behaviour and to help them reintegrate back into school life…

WVA: Behaviour

The Covid 19 Behaviour Appendix has been updated for September and can be found on the Academy Website The new Chesil Locality Team developed as part of Dorset Council’s Blueprint for Change has increased capacity for Early Help, SEND and Social Care services and this should provide better local support for families and students. We will continue to be an inclusive school who put children at the heart

• f everything that we do

Contingency Planning for Outbreaks

DFE: Process in the event of local

• utbreaks

If a local area sees a spike in infection rates that is resulting in localised community spread, appropriate authorities will decide which measures to implement to help contain the spread. The Department for Education will be involved in decisions at a local and national level affecting a geographical area, and will support appropriate authorities and individual settings to follow the health advice. We will provide more information on this process in due course.

WVA : Contingency Plan

In the case of an outbreak, our contingency plan involves following the specific advice from PHE and the DfE. WVA will remain open unless instructed to do so and if locked down it is likely that the vulnerable children provision will continue and possibly the children

• f critical workers as well but we do not know at this time. Remote education

will be provided for all other pupils. Staff would be expected to work from site in order to deliver remote education, unless national guidance advised they should work from home The remote education offer would mirror the normal daily timetable

DFE: Contingency Planning - Remote Education

Where a class, group or small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or there is a local lockdown requiring pupils to remain at home, we expect schools to have the capacity to offer immediate remote education.

DFE: Contingency Planning - Remote Education

In developing these contingency plans, we expect schools to:  use a curriculum sequence that allows access to high-quality online and offline resources and teaching videos, and that is linked to the school’s curriculum expectations  give access to high quality remote education resources  select the online tools that will be consistently used across the school in order to allow interaction, assessment and feedback, and make sure staff are trained in their use

DFE: Contingency Planning - Remote Education

In developing these contingency plans, we expect schools to:  provide printed resources, such as textbooks and workbooks, for pupils who do not have suitable online access  recognise that younger pupils and some pupils with SEND may not be able to access remote education without adult support, and so schools should work with families to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum.

DFE: Remote Education

When teaching pupils remotely, we expect schools to:  set assignments so that pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects  teach a planned and well-sequenced curriculum so that knowledge and skills are built incrementally, with a good level of clarity about what is intended to be taught and practised in each subject  provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher in the school or through high quality curriculum resources and/or videos

DFE: Remote Education

When teaching pupils remotely, we expect schools to:  gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum, using questions and other suitable tasks and set a clear expectation on how regularly teachers will check work  enable teachers to adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or simplifying explanations to ensure pupils’ understanding  plan a programme that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, ideally including daily contact with teachers

WVA : Microsoft Teams

MS Teams will continue to be used in September 2020 as an integral part of our planning and resource sharing with students We will use MS Teams for classwork and homework in order to reduce the need for students to take their exercise books home. The “Turn In” function should be used for Homework Staff and students will continue to receive training in the use of TEAMS during the Autumn term.

WVA : Microsoft Teams

Our timetable would operate on MS Teams in the event of local lockdown or school closure This does not necessarily mean live lessons, but the expectation is that work will be set, with the opportunity for engagement with teachers, during the allocated timetable lesson This could take the form of a live lesson, of teachers talking over a PPT resource or using a pre-recorded video with task & assignment turn in

Risk Assessment

WVA Updated Risk Assessment

Everyone has a responsibility to reduce and mitigate risks, whilst understanding it is impossible to ever fully eliminate the risk of catching coronavirus We have had a full and detailed inspection of our site and the risk assessments we have put in place. The AAT CEO & Trustees have final sign off responsibility of the Risk Assessment

WVA: Parent Letter

Please refer to the Parent Carer letter and the other information contained on this webpage for more detailed information