Children back at school with safety measures in place

Yesterday marked the first day of stage two of the exit from lockdown and students from pre-school to Year 9 were able to return to their education.

Castel Primary School head teacher Linda Paley said welcoming the pupils back was wonderful.

‘We had a really smooth and calm return to school, which was great, and it could not have been achieved without a significant amount of hard work that went on in the background,’ she said.

‘It’s due to the whole community working together that we could see the children coming back happy and smiling, excited to be back with their friends and teachers again.’

A number of safety measures are in place to limit any risk of infection in the schools.

Castel’s playground is split into zones, drop-off and pick-up times are staggered to limit the number of people on site at any one time, and staff have all received negative Covid test results.

Tables have been separated so each child has their own designated work station which is distanced from the others and windows and doors are left open to help with ventilation.

On top of this, the cloakroom is not being used to avoid pinch-points in the school, year groups have their own bubbles, hand-washing and sanitising is built into the day and children bring their own toys to play with at break times.

Staff are limiting their time spent with one another, are wearing face coverings and are leaving the site sharply after the school day finishes so a deep clean can be carried out professionally.

Ms Paley said there were a few families who were shielding or isolating, but for the large majority of pupils the return to school went off without a hitch.

Surveillance testing was carried out over the weekend for some pupils returning to school.

Yesterday it was confirmed that it had been nine days since any new cases of the virus had been found in the Bailiwick.