It seems strange that we are already a month into term and for most students and many staff the adaptation to the world of Covid compliance has been fairly seamless. The fact that, thus far, there has been relatively little fire fighting to do is encouraging as it suggests that most of the changes that have been put into place make sense and are relatively straightforward to follow. That said, I am sure that you will have either noticed or heard about two ways in which we are altering our operations from today (Monday 12 October). Firstly, we are shortening the lunch break to 30 minutes to enable the creation of a proper 20 minute break 0940-1100, enabling students and staff some downtime in a morning that was otherwise a somewhat brutal routine. With luck we should be able to offer the students the chance to get some food, the staff to have cup of tea and everyone to mentally prepare for the run through to lunch. The change is less popular with the sixth form I suspect, as they will have less time to spend in the local fast food outlets, but the decision will certainly make a difference for everyone else and is a whole-school issue of course…
The second change is the subject of a letter parents towards the end of last week. Though most of the school population travels between lessons out of doors, we do have some internal circulation space where there is more restricted ventilation. From Monday masks will therefore be compulsory in the Maths Block, the E Block and Sixth Form Block upstairs and in the Science Block; students will need to wear masks both when they are queuing and when passing through these spaces, and in addition we will require all students to wear masks when they are lining up for the Dining Hall as this is an area where social distancing is difficult to enforce and maintain. We feel that these measures are sensible, proportionate and in accordance with the flexible national guidance that has been issued by the DfE. Will there be further changes? Quite possibly. I have just done the weekly review of the whole school risk assessment, and it will be re-posted shortly on the website at https://www.bishopwordsworths.org.uk/main-school/home/coronavirus-information/
There are, of course, some very encouraging signs of things starting to ‘get closer to normal’. Thus last week we had our first Pol Soc Meeting (virtually) with Caroline Noakes MP. Our second HM Lecture of the term is scheduled for Tuesday with Matthew Davidson (University of Bath) and our online Cathedral Service last week had some sheep starring alongside Reverend Gough!
This weekend a large number of Lower and Middle School boys took part in year group tournaments at Britford Lane, and Duke of Edinburgh expeditions are being organised by James Oldham in camp-free format. In other words all that non-lesson stuff that matters so much here at Bishop’s, the stuff that helps create an all-round education, is starting to happen despite everything. The odds may be stacked against us, but staff and students are determined to make things happen safely and well, and I am immensely grateful for all of that.
SDS
