Today started at 5am when the first message came through from one of our head teachers. The Government’s ‘key workers list’ was published at midnight, the list we had been waiting for all day yesterday to help us plan for the next few weeks.
The list is extensive, after expecting only 10% of children to be in school in the coming weeks we could now be expecting many, many more. One head teacher said to me ‘I am concerned about the pressure on my staff, at the moment many of them are in tears and struggling. I have duty of care for them.’
At 7am we were all at our laptops typing up detailed letters home to our parents outlining what a key worker is and how we are going to cater for them. This is information we needed yesterday. On top of this, we are still struggling to find out how we are going to feed our vulnerable pupils who are not in school. The Government have told us we still need to provide meals for these children – some supermarkets are signing up to a voucher scheme and we are able to buy vouchers which could be sent out to the families – somehow!
Today I have asked our central finance team to find out how we can provide £12.50 a week to each child eligible for free school meals. How do we make these payments? How do we process these payments? How do we get the vouchers from the supermarket to the families?
Keeping our school leaders motivated and strong is a priority. I am communicating daily with them all. We are all in one large What’s App group and we are using this group as way of delivering one consistent message to all. It’s also a nice medium to be sharing motivational words, prayers, photos and funny stories.
As we roll with the changes and ensure that we are playing our part in the wider National Strategy in the response to this virus, we must make sure we are looking after our own mental health too.
