Thursday 22nd May
Hello, hello, hello! How are you on this fine day? We continue to be very busy at Olive Hill preparing for the potential return of more children.
Many of your teachers have now decluttered their classrooms - at one point today I thought Miss Grice was actually leaving us, she had that much stuff that she was putting into her car. She did reassure me that she had a lot of teddies and they all needed to go home for a wash. Phew! KS2 children, your learning packs have been through the wash - there are blue bags hung all over the place. Mrs Waldron has even offered to iron them (do you think she realises that there are over 200 of them!). The rulers and the scissors have been through the dishwasher - thankfully they survived and our now all clean.
Mr Weston has been on several trips out today, he went to B&Q to get tape for the car park, which will not be a car park, it will be drop off and collection area (the staff car park is moving to the KS1 playground, and children will play on other playgrounds). He also went to collect LOTS of hand sanitizer from Dudley Council. Mr Priest has been busy creating posters that explain our new rules for being ‘ready, respectful, safe’ - this includes washing hands and social distancing. Mr Holder has been working with Miss Lee and Mrs Carpenter to put children into their new bubbles (more about that in a minute) and Miss Walters has been creating signs for our mini-schools. I have been writing a risk assessment and Mrs Stonehouse is still tidying up after us all!
What does she mean by mini-schools and bubbles I hear you ask? As part of our phased return for more children (nursery, reception, year one and year six) we have to carefully consider how we can reduce the risk of infection within the school environment. That means we have to keep different groups of people separated (although we still all be connected emotionally and virtually). We have split the school into five teams:
The Infrastructure Team. These are the people who keep the school running from outside of the classroom. This includes the office staff, cleaners, Mr Weston, Mr Patel and me.
The Blue School. This is the EYFS area, the EYFS staff team and any EYFS children who are in school.
The Yellow School. This is the KS1 area , the KS1 staff team and any year one children who are in school.
The Red School. This is the LKS2 staff team, the year three and six classrooms, and any children in year two, three, four or five who have parents who are keyworkers.
The Green School. This is the UKS2 staff team, the year four and five classrooms, and any year six children who are in school.
Does it sound complicated? I can tell you now that it is. And, to make it even more complicated inside each mini-school we have ‘bubbles’ of no more than 15 children. Of course, they are not literally a bubble (that would be a bit silly, can you imagine us all walking around dressed as bubbles!).
Real bubbles are generally just air wrapped in soap film. Soap film is made from soap and water (or other liquid). The outside and inside surfaces of a bubble consist of soap molecules. A thin layer of water lies between the two layers of soap molecules, sort of like a water sandwich with soap molecules for bread. They work together to hold air inside. Do you like to blow bubbles? Perhaps you have some bubble mixture at home, or when you are washing your hands you might try to blow a bubble between your thumb and finger by forming a circle.
I think bubbles are rather magical. I love watching them move through the air, and seeing the beautiful colours. I also like to chase them and make them pop! The bubbles we create in school will not be the soapy kind (although we could do that as well), they will be bubbles of people who learn and play together; who feel safe, secure and connected; who support each other and show kindness to one another; who smile and laugh together - I think that is rather magical! Don’t you?
We miss you. Stay safe.