This month has seen us really grappling with growing Covid numbers. As we wrestle to keep schools open there is an increasing need to send groups of young people home. As schools we are becoming experts in tracking, tracing and sending close contacts home. We have a wide range of new words we are using frequently with children from social distancing to bubbles to self-isolation. Our on-line learning offer is now becoming more of a routine and less and less of an obscure interest to those who especially like IT.
As we try and figure out what our brave new world will eventually look like, it reminds us to value what we have already got. Thankfully school staff have been protected from the economic realities of dealing with furlough or simply the closures of their businesses. We are able to come into work and to interact with others. It remind us that we need one another and need to care for one another at all times, not just during a pandemic and that our human social contact is critical for our mental and physical health.
The last few months have really seen us living our central Trust value of ‘working together, transforming lives’. It is critical now as never before that we remind ourselves of what is important and the roles we play in supporting one another as well as delivering outstanding education despite the current situation because without it our young people will lose out again in a year where they have already faced so many challenges and had their lives so disrupted.
“Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door.” ― Emily Dickinson
Written: November 2020
