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Meldreth Primary School

www.meldreth.cambs.sch.uk

Since the school closed on 20th March, we have continued to open our doors every day throughout lockdown for a very small number of children, predominantly those with parents who are emergency workers. We have staffed this on rotation, with all those available pitching in to help. However, the numbers have sometimes been so small that there have been occasions when the staff have outnumbered the children!

In May, the government announced that schools in England would reopen to three (out of seven) age groups in primary schools on 1st June. So began a fairly intense period of preparation for the day when we could welcome back a significant proportion of our children. Extensive risk assessments were drafted and redrafted, amended and circulated, reviewed and rewritten as government policy and advice gradually unfurled. We had to survey our parents to discover firstly how parents felt about their children returning to school and secondly, whether or not they were committing to the plan so we could prepare numbers. Regular online Zoom meetings with staff enabled us to form a plan for reopening our doors. To ensure that social distancing could be maintained, numbers were limited to twelve per classroom, so all our classrooms were quickly designated for use. Tables were spaced at approved distances from one another and all unused furniture stacked up and removed to storage until whatever date in the future we ‘get back to normal’! Ha!! In the meantime, to bolster ‘locked down’ spirits, I wrote a lockdown rap: the staff submitted videos of themselves performing sections of it and Miss McGinty deftly stitched it together into a whole and posted it

on the school website. Back in school, preparations for 1st June continued apace. We created seven ‘Learning Bubbles’. These were the groups of eight to ten children who, with their assigned adults would be consigned to their given learning space. To avoid possible crosscontamination, each group was designated its own toilet adjacent to or contained within the bubble. Our ground staff came and painted lines on the school field so that each ‘bubble’ group would have sole use of a small section of the school field or playground. Packs of classroom equipment were made up – pencils, pens, scissors, crayons and so on for each individual child who was returning, so nothing would be passed around. Cases of hand gel and antiviral sprays were circulated throughout the school as the anti-COVID battle plan progressed. Parents of those children returning were notified of our new routines and procedures. A staggered timetable was devised, so no two bubbles of children would mix outside the school gates and two metre distancing was indicated along the pathway running up to the entrance. The military style preparations understandably led to some staff anxieties and uncertainties; a thousand ‘What-ifs’ and plenty of restless nights as 1st June approached … and then it arrived, and so too did the children, dutifully arriving on the Tuesday for our first day back. Apprehensive at first, they ‘gathered’ in two-metre spaced lines and filed into their bubbles. Of course, the majority of the school population were still at home – it was only our youngest two year groups and our oldest, Year 6, who had returned, so as well as managing groups in school we are continuing to plan and mark the work of those children who are still ‘enjoying’ Home Learning, and we feel tremendously for those children and their families who we know are longing to be reunited with their friends and school!

Life at school has certainly undergone the most dramatic changes that I’ve known in my career and there are many additional aspects to our return that have been hugely affected – lunch routines – bringing a reading book from home – PE - first aid – are just a few that spring to mind. However, from this point, I shall hand over to the children for their comments about how they see the return to school from their perspective.

Andrew Jones Deputy Headteacher

Our younger children in Year 1 made fairly modest observations:

I have liked seeing and playing with my friends. Caia Z

I have really enjoyed playing with my friends. Declan P

I have loved seeing Oscar and making my writing smaller.

Sebastian P

I have enjoyed learning about The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Oscar D

The older children in year 6 were a little more expansive! Coming back to school feels very strange because I hadn't seen my classmates in AGES! We're not allowed to leave our bubble (which is only our classroom and the bathroom next door). We have a different teacher (Mr Jones) instead of our proper teacher because she has more restricted rules. Even though she isn't teaching us, she is still setting work for us! In conclusion, I'm enjoying being back at school, seeing my friends, socialising and having fun! Joseph Y6 Coming back to school was one of the best things that could have happened. We have so much fun while staying 2 metres apart. We rarely see the other class since we are stuck in our bubbles that no one can come in or out. I enjoy being back at school because I get to have a little more time with my friends that I’m not going to see at Melbourn next year. Chris 2 metres, 2 metres, 2 metres. That's what it's all about. When we are waiting to sanitise, 2 metres. At our tables, 2 metres. Washing our hands for lunch, 2 metres. It's all two metres. Actually, it's a lot of 'box' too. Our classroom is basically a box. We

have a box on the playground and our box on the field. Those boxes are the only places we go. We eat lunch in our classroom. Also, everything is named. All of my pencils, my glue stick, my ruler, my rubber, everything! Eva

Back at school, I actually find it quite exciting, because we sometimes can eat outside, get our own chromebooks and we even get our own trays with organized pencils and pens. It is a bit strange that we have to keep two meters apart from each other and talk over barriers, but I am getting a bit used to it. Break times are also fun, because sometimes Harry, Oliver, Owen and I play with paper airplanes in our area on the basketball pitch. Matthew. School during COVID-19 is very different from normal school and since we have had 9 weeks of doing work at home it is very strange to be back. In class we are divided into groups of eight and we learn in different classrooms. It is very different as we have lunch in class instead of the hall and we have only a fraction of the field to play in. People only get given one Chromebook, one pen, one pencil and other stationary to decrease the risk of spreading germs. Overall school in COVID is strange but is slowly getting back to normal. Max Back at school it was way different, way more separated where we sit. It's hard at break and lunch. We have to stay in boxes on the field or the playground every time we come in we need to wash our hands. When we play football it's annoying because there’s no goalie and we can't even tackle each other. Oscar

It has been strangely great being back because at the start I thought that we wouldn't come back. It is so hard not seeing everyone for ages and then having to social distance from them. Also it is good that we can eat lunch in the classroom and we don't have to queue for lunch. The annoying thing is that we can't tackle when we play football! But overall it is amazing! Annabel