New Governor Blog September 2020

Date: 5th Apr 2022 @ 3:53pm

Welcome to the New Academic Year 2020-2021 

As governors, we were absolutely delighted that Mr Ellis, Mr Lenton and the staff could welcome all the children back as a school community at the start of September. For many children it was over five months since they had been inside the school, as they received various amounts of home-schooling; for others it was the length of the usual summer holiday after a surreal half term before.  The Year 6 children were the pioneers of the virtual school for a few weeks when in Year 5, giving them the opportunity to receive face to face teaching, see their peers on screen, as well as being connected to their class. For the staff it was a period of uncertainty as they supported the vulnerable and key-worker children in school and worked from home preparing for the new school year. The return for everyone is school life in times of COVID 19. 
 
Throughout the lockdown period we as governors have continued our role in the background. It has, as everyone knows, been the strangest change and situation a school has ever had to deal with - I experienced many challenges in my Headship but none as testing and complicated as COVID. Mr Ellis had to read, digest and act upon countless government guidelines to ensure the safety of the children and their access to learning, as his paramount priority. I also joined online conferences and webinars as we discussed and dealt with the situation at hand. 
 
Lockdown is a period of our history we hope is never repeated in the same isolating manner. So many parents had to deal with full time working from home - a challenge in itself - with the added responsibility of home schooling: a daunting task at the best of times but with no warning or time to prepare it became a great juggling act. I know many parents worked late into the evenings as they shared teaching their children with their own work, to put in the hours needed - an exhausting challenge. 
 
As a school we followed the government guidelines, creating a bespoke website page for Coronavirus support with help and signposts to the current school curriculum and other websites, both information and interactive, to support children’s learning. Also, on the school website is the year group topic work. I, as a grandparent and retired Headteacher, was called upon to home-school my grandchildren aged 3 - 10! Each morning I logged on at 9.00 to start my morning’s teaching on screen in hour sessions to the different age groups - nursery, Years 1, 3 and 5. For the topic work for the Year 3 and 5, I used the planning from BHA. It was an excellent way to monitor the quality and depth of learning on offer. Although the situation meant we couldn’t manage all the activities, those we could do engaged, motivated and inspired my two, as they created some interesting models, tried various activities and researched with enthusiasm; I was impressed with the development of the topics from the school. 
 
In our virtual governors’ meetings, we have been keen to hear feedback from our BHA parents. We are aware there has been some mixed feeling regarding contact at the beginning of lockdown, nevertheless have resolved this through phone calls and other means. The parents’ questionnaire will help us to reflect and respond accordingly in the future. Already the ‘Meet the Teacher’ sessions have been adapted from requests of parents for particular information. 
 
One of our next objectives as governors is to review our vision in light of the current situation. We need to look ahead to include for example, facilities such as face to face virtual teaching, a mechanism which has been trialled and is in place ready for when and if it is needed. We are in uncertain times – local self-isolating could happen at any time, so it is imperative that as a school BHA can continue to keep to its core moral purpose of safeguarding its children and providing the highest quality education possible. 
 
As governors we will continue to support and challenge the school to ensure the high quality of education the BHA children have always received, continues regardless of the climate within which we are working. 

Kate Lee 

Chair of Governors