BARBARA HEATON

Principal, The Pearl Acedemy

Q: What is new in the school for the academic year 2021/22?

A: Following the introduction of the new ADEK regulations, we are super pleased to have 99 per cent of our children back on face-to-face learning. How great is that? Following last year’s restrictions, we are delighted to welcome back certain activities including swimming, PE and ECAs on our schedule again. Although these still need to be adapted, we feel that we really value having them back. We have learnt such a lot from last year and teachers are busy planning trips, being creative about maintaining the regulations whilst also availing of opportunities to explore new learning.

Q: How is the school coping with the new challenges presented by the pandemic?

A: We were all delighted to see the children coming back into school and we are super impressed with how they have adapted to the requirements for PCR testing, presenting their test paper to security each morning and following all the necessary protocols of social distancing, sanitizing and wearing their masks. We are also so pleased to be able to offer in-school PCR testing which for us started 5 September. This is amazing support from ADEK and the DoH.

Q: What is the importance of having children back in a classroom setting?

A: It is incredibly important for all aspects of personal, social and mental well-being to be able to be back in school again- everyone is happier now and we come to school each day looking forward to seeing our friends and teachers. “Being back in the classroom is great,” one of our Year 3 children said, "now with the 1m social distancing, we are back in classes instead of being split and our teachers can teach the whole class together. Plus, most of us at our school are physically back in school now too, we can hear the energetic buzz as our school comes back to life - we’re back on the same team together again!”