Rydal Penrhos Daily Notes – June 12

Day 58 from Rydal Penrhos school’s keyworker childcare provision – 16 pupils, 8 staff

Apart from being an emotional rollercoaster, the actual closing of the Rydal Penrhos school site in March, due to the pandemic, didn’t involve too much immediate paperwork.

Of course, that was waiting just around the corner with furloughing, remote learning and working out how to use all of our school financial and HR software from home (to name but a few)!

Re-opening the school during the pandemic, however, is a completely different matter: there is a form for everything, a risk assessment for every action and guidance from both the UK and Welsh government on every corner of school life (although sometimes the question you want an answer for is not included anywhere in the guidance!).

We have so far amassed 52 pages in the re-opening Rydal Penrhos School guidance, with links to over 36 different government documents.

We have been thorough and careful as the situation warrants but it’s a lot of information to take in, isn’t it?

Who would have thought, in February, that I would be writing a sentence such as, ‘Full PPE will be provided in line with SAGE advice and the ongoing R number’ into a school risk assessment in June!

The new vocabulary intake has been astonishing.

To take a break from paperwork and phone calls to hand sanitizer companies, I went down to the younger keyworker bubble to see what they were up to.

Fantastic creativity making huge ocean pictures. Phew! A sigh of relief…children just carry on don’t they, playing and doing what they do best.

Well done kids!!

Mrs Lucy Davies

Head of Rydal Penrhos Prep School