GSO Test

FAQs relating to phased return of students

 We have been collecting some of the common questions that parents/carers have about the full return of students

How safe is the site? Have social distancing measures been put in place?

We have made the site as safe as is reasonably possible. The following measure are in place:

• 2 meter social distancing markings throughout the school to remind students and staff to keep apart when moving between rooms
• classrooms adjusted so that all students face forward wherever practicable
• desks moved apart and unused furniture removed/cordoned off 
• distinct 'teacher space' marked out in each room to avoid teachers getting too close to students (as teachers can move between bubbles)
• Year group bubble system to avoid crossing on corridors
• separate toilets for different year groups, along with separate break areas and dedicated classrooms
• posters around the site to remind everyone of the need to wash their hands regularly
• hygiene reminder notices put up around the school to stress the importance of washing hands regularly for at least 20 seconds

Can I see your risk assessment?

Yes - click here to download it.

Can we see photographs of the classrooms set up for social distancing?

 The images below show how the rooms looked for phased return arrangements.  In preparation for the full return of students, rooms are laid out in a much more normal pattern, just front facing and with a teacher space.

Can I send my daughter to school if she is not well?

No. if your daughter is displaying any of the symptoms of COVID-19, she must NOT come to school. She should self-isolate at home in accordance with the Government guidance and call NHS 111 to ask for a COVID19 test.

If she is unwell with any other symptoms which are not COVID-19, you must not send her to school either as these could mask the onset of COVID-19

We don't want other germs or illnesses circulating in the school community at this time as these could cause complications if anyone did become ill with COVID-19

The Government guidance on the importance of your daughter staying at home if she or anyone in your household might have COVID-19 are set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance

What about self-isolation?

 The government guidance is still that if someone develops symptoms of coronavirus, they and everyone else in their household must self-isolate at home. You daughter can not attend school if the family are self isolating. Please watch the video here.

The Government guidance on the importance of your daughter staying at home if she or anyone in your household might have COVID-19 are set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance

What cleaning arrangements are in place?

Our cleaning is undertaken by Solo Service Group - a respected, professional cleaning company. They have trained their team in the measure necessary to keep the school COVID-secure. Their staff are cleaning common 'touch points' such as door handles, handrails, desks and IT equipment much more frequently than normal. There is a checklist in place for each and every office and spot checks are being undertaken daily by members of the caretaking staff and the senior leadership team. 

Solo are using cleaning products suited to the eradication of COVID-19 and ensuring that cleaning cloths are not cross-contaminated between surfaces. 

We are using far fewer classrooms, desks, chairs, toilets, etc/ than usual which give us plenty of working hours to clean the site much more frequently each day than under normal operations.

In the event of a student or member of staff being sent home during the day due to illness, arrangements are in place to undertake a comprehensive deep clean of any spaces they have used before other students are allowed back into that space.

Does my daughter have to return to school?

Yes - unless your daughter is told by her Doctor (in writing) to remain at home, she must return to school. It is the law. 

When is the school opening? Start date?

IFrom Tuesday16th June, students in Years 10 and 12 will be invited into school for a pastoral & progress conversation. Each students will have her own appointment time that week for either a face to face or online review meeting.

We are planning on starting the Year 10 and Year 12 lesson rota from Monday 22nd Jun 

These dates could change at short notice if the Government advice changes or if we don't think it is safe to have students back on those dates.

What time will school start? How long will students be in school for?

• Students on the rota in Year 10 will start at 9.30 am and end at 12.00 pm
• Students on the rota in Year 12 will start at 10.15 am and finish at 12.45 pm

• Students who we need to see in Year 13 will be in from 9:30am to 2:30pm and lunchtime will be 12pm to 12:30pm. These times will be in place from Monday 22nd June to 26th June.

All these times are because we want to avoid students having to travel at peak times and to stagger the arrival of the two year groups to keep students separate. 

When should I collect my daughter from school?

Year 10 = 12.00 pm

Year 12 = 12.45 pm

Year 13 = 2.30 pm

When should my daughter do when she arrives?

Students will be directed to a handwashing sink on arrival by a member of staff where she will have to wash her hands for 20 seconds. This is compulsory. 

Students will then be directed to the room set aside for their intensive lesson that day. We are not allowing students access to their lockers to avoid mixing on the corridors.

Year 10 students will not be asked to hand their mobile phones in at Reception as keeping lots of phones in storage together is unhygienic. Year 10 must put their phones on SILENT and then put them away. Phones which are seen will be confiscated from Year 10 students. 

Where should my daughter go to enter the school?

• Year 10 and Year 12 students will enter school through the Sixth Form Car Park

Year 13 BTEC students (invitation only) and EHCP+Key worker children enter through the main pedestrian gate as normal.

There are social distancing indicators on the floor at 2m intervals to show how far they should be apart (see photos provided).

Where should my daughter go when she arrives?

 There will be staff on hand to supervise / direct students.

• Year 10 will be using the Gym and Rooms 2 to 4 most of the time
• Year 12 will be using the Hall and Science Labs most of the time
• Students from other Year groups (approximately 10 students) in school  because one of their parents is a key worker or they have a health need are based in BE1 or Room 24

 A one way system will be in operation. Arrows on the floor show this. If you want to know more details, the map of the one way system is available here:

• COVID secure One Way system

Should my daughter wear a face mask/ gloves to school?

Your daughter is welcome to wear a face mask and gloves for her journey to school. (Indeed, face masks are required from the 15th June if she is using public transport).

All students will be directed to wash their hands upon arrival at school - to avoid touching any surfaces with hands/gloves which have come into contact with surfaces on the way into school. She will have to take off (and dispose of) any gloves worn on the way into school.

Upon arrival at school, students will need to remove any face masks so we can identify them. From the moment they arrive on site, they will be protected by our strict social distancing measures, one-way systems and frequent handwashing.

How many people will be in the class?

Classes in normal classrooms will have between 4 and 15 students in them. Classes delivered in the Hall, Gym or Sports hall will have between 10 and 30 students in them. 

Will my daughter be moving around school or staying in one place?

Students will stay in the same small area of the school site.

• Year 10 will be using the Gym and Rooms 2 to 4 most of the time. Their allocated toilets will be the ones near the rear playground. Break time will be in the grass quad or rear playground (weather permitting)
• Year 12 will be using the Hall and Science Labs most of the time. Their allocated toilets will be ones near Room 24. Break time will be in the 6th Form Quad (weather permitting).
• Students from other Year groups (approximately 10 students) in school  because one of their parents is a key worker or they have a health need are based in BE1 or Room 24. Their toilets are in the BE block and they will take their break in the 6th Form Quad at a different time to the Year 12 students.

What should my daughter wear to school?

• Year 10 students should wear normal school uniform BUT without the tie.  We suggest uniform is washed after each day at school. This means students do not have to wear their blazers as these are not designed to be machine washed every day.
• Students who are based in BE1 should wear normal school uniform BUT without the tie.   We suggest uniform is washed after each day at school. This means students do not have to wear their blazers as these are not designed to be machine washed every day.
• Year 12 students should wear smart clothes which are easy to wash in a hot wash

The usual rules concerning sensible shoes, no jewellery, etc. still apply - we will keep our high standard as we think this is in students' best interests. 

Should I wash my daughter’s clothes each day?

We advise that you should consider washing your daughter's clothes each time she has been to school. It isn't compulsory but it is a simple additional step which you can take to provide additional assurance to your daughter, your family and the whole BGGS community. 

What should my daughter bring with her to school?

Will my daughter be receiving lunch on site?

No. There are not enough students allowed on site for us to be able to reopen the canteen. (The catering staff have all be furloughed by our out-sourced catering provider)

All families are asked to provide a suitable packed lunch/snack if their daughter is likely to be hungry during the time she is in school.

Families entitled to free school meals are still being provided with supermarket vouchers to cover the cost of a midday meal to cover the cost of packed lunch/snack items.

Will my daughter be supervised during break time?

Yes. With such a relatively small number of students on site, we will be actively supervising both Year 10 and Year 12 students during break time.

Students from the two year groups will not be allowed to mix and 2 metre social distancing will be enforced. Staff supervising break will ensure students wash their hands again before they return to the intensive session.

What lessons will my daughter be receiving?

Students will be in school for intensive 3-hour sessions. This will be for a different subject each time they are in school and the sessions will focus on supporting/reinforcing what students have been doing in their home learning studies.

After the intensive session, teaching staff who have been delivering face to face, will then spend the rest of the day supporting all the other students who are learning at home.

Will my daughter come into contact with lots of teachers?

No. Each intensive session will be focused on one subject only and delivered by only one or two specialist subject staff.

Will my daughter be able to access the water fountain?

No. Our water fountains are not suitable for use by groups of students during the COVID pandemic. Rinsing and refilling individual water bottles at the water fountains represents too great at risk of cross contamination.

Your daughter should bring her own bottled drink (water or juice, but not things like Coke, Pepsi or energy drinks).

We will have a stock of single-use disposable cups which can be requested from the staff supervising breaks for use at the water fountain. But they must not be reused and we really do want to keep use of the water fountains to a minimum. 

Will my daughter have access to hand sanitiser in school?

Yes. We do have stocks of hand sanitiser at key points around the school. In addition, your daughter will be directed to wash her hands for at least 20 seconds on arrival at school, after any breaks, before eating and before leaving school each day.

She is welcome to bring her own hand sanitiser into school if you have any in your household. 

Will my daughter be able to socialise with other students

Yes. Socialising is really important. Students attending school are encouraged to talk to each other, to sway stories of what lockdown has meant for them and to get back to 'normal' conversations as quickly as possible.

We can't wait for our site to have the happy sound of student laughter and chatter once again.

But...

There will be no more than 25% of students in Year 10 and Year 12 on site at any one time. All conversations have to take place at 2 metre intervals. Large groups of students (more than 5 at a time) won't be allowed - even if they are socially distanced. Sadly, we won't be allowing students from different Year groups to mix with each other unless they are in the small BE1 group. But that small group won't mix with the other students on site

Will there be assemblies?

No. The Government guidance bans large gatherings. However, if we need to, we can use the tannoy system to broadcast assembly-like messages just like the daily act of collective worship when the school is running as normal. 

What about access to lockers?

We are not encouraging students to use their lockers - they are in close proximity and could encourage students to breach social distancing arrangements.

If they have items in their locker they need to permanently retrieve from their locker when they are on site. they can ask their teacher if this is possible at the end of the day. 

Can I send my daughter to school if she is not well?

No. if your daughter is displaying any of the symptoms of COVID-19, she must NOT come to school. She should self-isolate at home in accordance with the Government guidance and call NHS 111 to ask for a COVID19 test.

If she is unwell with any other symptoms which are not COVID-19, you must not send her to school as other illnesses could hide the onset of COVID-19

We don't want other germs or illnesses circulating in the school community at this time as these could cause complications if anyone did become ill with COVID-19

Can I send my daughter to school is someone in our household has symptoms of COVID-19?

No. The government guidance is that everyone in the household should self-isolate. Follow the instructions on the government's website.

How are you making sure students know all of this information?

We have made a standardised safety video which teachers will show at the start of each daily session. You can view that video here: http://www.bordgrng.bham.sch.uk/News/Safety-Video-to-be-played-each-day 

My question is't here - how can I get it answered?

Mrs S Farzand (KS3)	07873 384 094	sfarzand@bordgrng.bham.sch.uk
Ms T Shah (KS3)	07541 852 112	tshah@bordgrng.bham.sch.uk
Ms J Joyner (KS3)	07922 525550	joyner@bordgrng.bham.sch.uk
Ms L Porter (KS4)	07871 778 623	lporter@bordgrng.bham.sch.uk
Ms R Jan (KS4)	07752 263 839	rjan@bordgrng.bham.sch.uk
Ms S Voutsinou (KS5) Mr D Richards (KS5 & Careers)	07871 778 621 07561 610557	svoutsinou@bordgrng.bham.sch.uk drichards@bordgrng.bham.sch.uk
Ms H Davies  (SENDCO)	07561 678532	hdavies@bordgrng.bham.sch.uk

  

 

Remember:

We want to be open and we are looking forward to welcoming students back. It might feel a bit different in some ways - but try not to worry about that. Lots of things will be same as normal; we will still have teachers leading groups of students through planned lessons, we are still going to smile and be cheerful, we plan on using all our usual skills and expertise to support all students and we are going to work really hard at keeping students and their families up-to-date through information pages like this one.

No-one will be  will be penalised if they don’t want to send their daughter back right away and we will always work hard to answer your questions.