Schoolwork and outdoors on timetable
While most children’s activity centres may be operating in school buildings, staff have had to adapt to entirely new ways of working.
Elizabeth Douglas is head teacher of Newhill Primary School in Blairgowrie and helped set up the town’s children’s activity centre, which is based in the community campus.
Mrs Douglas said: “I volunteered to help out and support the hub.
“We wanted them up and running but the timescales were very tight.”
Mrs Douglas and janitorial staff helped set up the room being used while being mindful of the need to maintain social distancing guidelines.
Each child, or family group, has their own workspace while the need to maintain personal space has been turned into a game for younger children who are encouraged to imagine they have “bubbles” around them that should not be broken by people coming too close.
Mrs Douglas said the hubs must be more “flexible” than an ordinary school and children are involved in planning their days.
During term time, this usually involves free time to start the day before older children log on to laptops or tablets to complete schoolwork.
Because the hubs are more informal than schools, the children have also been able to take advantage of the recent warm weather by playing outside for longer.
And Mrs Douglas said the hubs would not have been successful without the dedication of staff, who are drawn from different schools so children see at least one familiar face at the hub.
She said: “There was a degree of apprehension about coming into a situation they didn’t really know but the feedback from the staff has been really positive.
“They’re confident about the risk assessments that are in place and we know we have plentiful supplies of PPE.
“The staff that have joined are really appreciative that it is something they are doing where their skills can help support children and young people in hubs.”
And she said staff are aware their work is helping workers carry out their duties on the frontline of the coronavirus response.