Good morning,

Following my latest letter to you regarding the return to school plans, two parents have emailed concerned regarding the breaks for learners being within the classroom where they will take their refreshments.

As a school we took this decision based on the fact that contact groups need to remain separate as much as possible. Our school dining hall is too small to avoid mass gatherings. As we only have one small dining hall and one even smaller bistro we could not keep children distanced or avoid cross contamination of contact groups. We are unable to segregate learners outside due to the physical nature of the site. Split breaks and lunches would reduce lesson time which is not permitted by WG. The alternative would be to reinstate reduced breaks and have all learners outside to take their refreshments, only entering for toilet breaks, but with the understanding that we could not then keep them within their contact groups and potentially the spread of the virus could happen. It should be noted that this would be in place regardless of weather conditions.

I would like to gain your views on this and ask for you to complete the short survey below