The Government has issued guidance for all education and childcare settings that are remaining open to support key workers.
This is to help ensure that the risk of virus spread for both staff and children is as low as possible.
They are asking settings to follow these guidelines:
- tell children, parents, carers or any visitors, such as suppliers, not to visit the education or childcare setting if they are displaying any symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19)
- consider how children arrive at the education or childcare setting and reduce any unnecessary travel on coaches, buses or public transport
- ensure class sizes reflect the numbers of teaching staff available and are kept as small as possible
- stagger lunch times, break times and the movement of pupils around the school to reduce large groups of children gathering
- discourage parents from gathering at school gates
- try to follow the social distancing guidelines
The Government recognise that this can be difficult with young children and ask for consideration and best efforts to be made. The guidance also asks settings to inform parents of the procedures being taken and to increase cleaning.
The DfE reinforce, in the guidance, their commitment to supply schools with adequate supplies of personal and domestic cleaning products.
They are also putting in place a new process that allows the DfE to reimburse schools for exceptional costs that they face during the outbreak. We will keep you posted as to updates.
To access the full guidance click here.
