TAS Covid Update

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Hello , 

Welcome to the Alternative School statement regarding Covid 19, Term 1, September 20. 

Following the recent news that Covid has begun to increase in numbers over the recent weeks, The Alternative School  would like to advise you of what our plans look like moving forward towards Christmas. 

Firstly, we are already making contingency plans to ensure that if we have to return to a lockdown or partial lockdown situation, that we will continue to provide home cooked meals to all pupils and staff daily, that pupils and staff both have access to IPADs and a wealth of remote teaching resources, all personalised for TAS.  Safeguarding calls to pupils will be made daily, with our most vulnerable supported by an additional call from our senior leadership and home visits and doorstep contact will happen with all pupils at least twice a week.  We have successfully done this once, and we will pick this up and do it again..and again..and again if we need to.  Every single member of the staff team are wholly committed to ensuring that there is no break in the continuity of our teaching and learning and we are proud to say that we will stick by all of our parents and pupils to ensure the academic and personal, social development is not affected by this virus.   

Currently, we are all in school and we are encouraging all pupils to attend school, 5 days a week but in a safe way.  Face masks, hand gel, temperature taking and social distancing have all become the norm in our schools, along with slipper wearing to improve the overall school culture and to encourage a warm, safe and relaxed environment for all.  This isn’t easy, but if we can all continue to obey by these rules, it ensures we can remain open and that we are not spreading the virus in school. 

We have a separate Covid policy which we update weekly in line with the DFE guidance and outlines what precautions to take if someone is showing symptoms or someone close to them has tested positive. It is frustrating when this happens and most of our children want to be in school, but please be assured that if someone has to self isolate, we will ensure we are still in touch, we are still by their side and still hand holding throughout.  We just want to make sure that we are keeping everyone safe and looking after everyone. 

At half term, we are going to be breaking for 2 weeks as opposed to our usual one, which will give us the opportunity to have a deep clean, but will also allow the staff the opportunity to be in school for 2 days without pupils so that they can plan together the curriculum for half term 2. A number of our team will have their phone on over the whole period and should anyone require any support, have any safeguarding concerns or even require hot food delivering, we will ensure we are there to support. 

Since the start of Covid, we have had a ‘TAS Covid Planning Team’ and have met (remotely) as a team every Monday morning to discuss the plans for each of our schools and all the children and families we work with.  Ensuring everyone is safe and cared for is our number 1 priority and this will continue to be the case throughout. 

We welcome any feedback or suggestions you may have and continue to work hard to ensure all of our pupils are reaching their full potential and the at their chances of achieve ing their predicted results are not affected throughout this difficult period.  

Our motto through lockdown became #educationinisolation  

Our motto has now become #educationcanbealternative 

Our underlining message remains that education will continue for all TAS pupils, some have returned to school, some have remained at home, some are enjoying live lessons and on-line personalised learning, others prefer work to be delivered, collected and marked. The Alternative School has been up for this challenge since the start, and will continue to do so, helping to ensure that each child works towards achieving 100% of their personalised plan. 

Thank you for your continued support. 

Warm regards and stay safe. 

TAS Team