Play Your Part, Help Control the Virus – Our Three Key Messages

Play your part Help control the virus

Our Three Key Messages

Whilst this guide also includes other important aspects to our work to protect the School community from COVID-19, our three key messages remain Please keep your distance, Wash your hands and Catch it, bin it, kill it. To keep everyone safe, it is vital that that all continue to adhere rigorously to them.

Posters and banners are prominently displayed around the School to remind everyone of these messages. The following pages explain them in more detail.

Please, keep your distance

• Pupils enter classrooms immediately on arrival to avoid queuing and overcrowding in corridors and doorways before the start of lessons.

• All desks are arranged to face forwards, with seating plans organised alphabetically by surname.

• Teachers have been advised to remain at the front of the classroom

when teaching. Teachers are also being encouraged generally to restrict contact only to pupils they are teaching or tutoring.

• The sharing of textbooks, worksheets and other resources is being minimised insofar as this is possible. Teachers will, for example:

— Scan textbook pages so they can be displayed on interactive white boards

— Send worksheets and resources to pupils in advance so they can be printed out. Where this is not possible, they will… — Put sanitised resources on desks, or in a box for pupils to take as they enter the room (once they have sanitised their hands).

• Merits, good notes, and bad notes continue to be issued electronically, rather than face-to-face.

• Pupils should begin packing up approximately five minutes before the bell to ensure that they can be dismissed from the classroom immediately after the bell has rung.

• Teachers will monitor the corridor as classes are being dismissed to avoid congestion.

• The School is again operating in year group ‘bubbles’ to avoid close contact between pupils from different years. More information on this and other aspects of our distancing measures is in our Bubbles & Distancing section below.

Wash your hands

• All pupils, staff and visitors should wash their hands regularly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, e.g. upon arrival at School, before eating, on departure etc.

• Pupils should sanitise their hands as they enter and leave at the start and end of every lesson; teachers will carefully control the entry and exit of pupils to ensure this happens.

• Hand sanitiser is being provided in every classroom and at other key points, such as reception, dining areas and The Queen’s Library. Some dispensers, such as that outside the Dining Hall, are automatic devices.

• Although hand sanitiser is provided, we also encourage pupils and staff to carry their own, and to use it regularly.

• Pupils can use the alcohol wipes provided to clean desk/chair surfaces before the lesson begins. Teachers will clean shared resources with alcohol wipes before and after use.

• More information on the School’s wider cleaning preparations and routines may be found on the Enhanced Cleaning Arrangements page below.

Catch it, bin it, kill it

• All boys, staff and visitors to the School are requested to carry their own tissues and to use them to catch a cough or sneeze. They should then immediately dispose of them in a waste bin, as well as washing or sanitising their hands. Packs containing tissues and wipes will be available in each classroom.

• Staff will ensure classroom bins are accessible for pupils to throw away tissues during lessons. All classroom bins have a lid, and there are lidded wheelie bins in the playgrounds. Lids are wiped down regularly.

• Everyone should take care to avoid touching their nose, mouth and other areas of their face.

• Doors are being kept open to increase ventilation in classrooms; windows are also being kept open whenever possible. Mag-lock doors have been installed in Main Building and the Fern Building.

• The Government recommends that, until Easter 2021 at the earliest, face masks should be worn in any indoor areas where social distancing of 2m cannot be maintained. This is in addition to where face coverings were mandatory last term: in QE corridors; in all communal spaces where social distancing is not possible, and on School coaches and public transport, unless there is a medical exemption. After use, pupils must ensure masks are safely disposed of. More information on face coverings is available on the following two pages.