School’s in ...for some
THE “majority of parents” have felt reassured by social distancing measures at an Ealing school, a head teacher has said.
Andrew Johnson, head teacher of St Benedict’s, an independent Catholic school, revealed 83 per cent of children in the nursery, Year 1 and Year 6 have returned to the Montpelier Avenue site, after the government asked schools to begin phasing pupils back to school from the beginning of the month.
It’s one of only a handful of schools in the borough that has reopened to more pupils so far. Ealing Council understood two schools out of 69 had reopened, while union bosses said they were aware of five schools planning to reopen last week.
Staggered arrival times at different entrances to the school, placing children into ‘bubbles’ or groups which they stay in throughout the day and desks kept two metres apart are some of the measures introduced by the staff.
Mr Johnson, said: “We are all delighted to see some of our pupils returning to school now, and particularly pleased that the majority of parents feel reassured by the stringent measures we have in place to keep everyone safe and well.
“It was clear from seeing the children on Monday that they are really glad to be back, and that social distancing is not preventing them from enjoying school and having a lot of fun. I pay tribute to all St Benedict’s staff who are working so hard to ensure the safety of our pupils.”
St John’s Primary School in West Ealing also opened its doors last week with head teacher Milan Stevanovic describing the return of the “buzz of excitement and energy” that had been missing for the last few months in lockdown.
He added the school was waiting on further government guidance to allowing more year groups also re-attend school in person.
Ealing Council understands the majority of schools will reopen their sites to more children from next week (June 15), as staff and head teachers across the borough have expressed concerns over safety for pupils and families and fears of a second spike in Covid-19.
The earliest date of June 15 has also been proposed due to findings from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), which says the risk of a child being infected with coronavirus is halved by a delay of schools reopening until June 15.
In a public meeting online with Ealing North MP James Murray and the National Education Union Ealing secretary Stefan Simms, 300 attendees made up of parents and others endorsed urging the council to formally recommend against reopening schools until June 15.
This call, also backed by UNISON and the GMB union, however has not been adopted by the council. Instead the authority has said schools should only open to more pupils when they are ready to do so.
Council leader Julian Bell added: “Our advice to schools continues to be that they shouldn’t reopen to meet an arbitrary deadline.”
One Ealing teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, said at their school in the borough there is a reluctance from parents to bring their children back to school. So far, for a planned reopening of next Monday, there has been less than a 50 per cent uptake on places.
They said: “I think the fact is people are not clear, they don’t have confidence in the messages being given out, is it safer to go back to school? Is it safe enough to ease lockdown? There are more questions than there are answers at the moment.”