Newsletter 12 June 2020

Important information regarding of the opening of the next phase

Good day all

Despite the easing of some of the COVID restrictions, the pandemic continues to impact on all our lives on many levels. The school has committed to supporting our parents by a phased opening of grades alongside the continued online teaching and learning. At all times the health and safety of our pupils and teachers is paramount and we will not deviate from the accepted norms and standards in this regard. There are likely to be adaptions to the return of our grade RR, 1, 4, 5, 8 and 9 learners.

News24, in collaboration with Parent24 and Health24, recently hosted an exclusive Q&A session with a panel of five leading experts with the aim to provide some clarity on whether or not it’s safe for parents to send their children to school. Here are some extracts from this forum.

Professor Eugene Weinberg, a pediatrician and allergist, says yes, it is safe for almost all children to return to school. He says that aside from a few exceptions, even children with severe asthma or diabetes can safely return to school provided the condition is under control and they’re using medication regularly. This is provided the school has the correct safety measures in place.

Professor Weinberg adds that goes without saying that children can only return to a school wearing a mask and where all the school’s essential safety measures to protect them against Covid-19 infection are in place, including especially hand washing facilities and the ability to space children in the classroom. Children, with extremely few exceptions, he says, appear to have a natural resistance to contracting Covid-19 and they also appear to be less likely to spread this infection.

He says he can understand parent’s concerns though, because children are precious. 

Pediatric pulmonologist, Professor Heather Zar agrees, pointing out that so far few children have become severely ill with Covid-19, and very few have died. 

She says it is safe for children to return to school because they have a very low risk of developing illness or severe disease, and are unlikely to widely spread SARS-CoV-2 infection in the context of an epidemic that is going to be around for months. 

The benefits of education and learning, mental health of learners, need to support parents to get back to work and dire need for school feeding schemes, outweigh the low risk of children getting sick from Covid-19 in school, she says.

She points out that a child’s risk of dying from influenza is much higher, and that currently there are many more cases of RSV and influenza than Covid-19 in children.

Professor Zar also mentions how the elderly are at risk, and advises that children and grandparents avoid touching, and advises distance and caution, saying that while it is low, there is a risk that children can transmit the virus to grandparents, warning “you do not want to be exposed to Covid-19”. 

This week has been remarkably successful in returning to an academic program. The two schools are running effectively with about 25 % of the learner’s back as you can see from the attached table. Academic work is progressing well and we are continuing to run the online program for those who haven’t been able to return.

Date08/06/202009/06/202010/06/202011/06/202012/06/2020
GradeAttendanceTotalAttendanceTotalAttendanceTotalAttendanceTotalAttendanceTotal
R 39 39 39 39 39
1 36 36 36 36 36
219341934183418341434
316421742174217421442
Total3515136151351513515128151
% 23.1 23.8 23.1 23.1 18.5
4 44 44 44 44 44
5 44 44 44 44 44
622402540234023402240
727362636263626362636
8 40 40 40 40 40
9 40 40 40 40 40
10 36 36 36 36 36
1117251825202518251825
1215171617161715171117
total8132285322853228232277322
% 25.1 26.3 26.3 25.4 23.9
Grand Total116 121473120473117473105473

Please note: 

  • We will have school on the 15th of June but the 16th is a holiday. Grade 10’s will return on Wednesday 17 June and the Grade R’s on Thursday 18 June.
  • We have also opened the tuck shop with strict access controls to allow our pupils to access refreshments and limited times.
  • When we open for term 3 on 6th July we will be allowing four grades back on a platoon basis
  • This means that Grade 9 and 5 on Mondays and Wednesdays and Grade 8 and 4 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We will alternate the Fridays between the two groups. So we will have Grade 9 and Grade 5 on Friday the 10 July 2020
  • Grade 1 and Grade RR will return on a daily basis from 6 July 2020. Exact dates to be confirmed.

To accommodate the return of the next phase and ensure that we maintain proper control over the social distancing requirements we will have to have different break times for the high school and primary school pupils. This requires two separate time tables and an allocation of teachers into either high school or primary school phases. It is not possible to run the bell system at the moment with two different lesson times, and we will implement a no bell system from Monday onwards. Staff and pupils will have to adjust accordingly. This is not an unusual regime and many schools run quite normally without a bell. In fact, it teaches time management and time awareness which support both tertiary and remote learning practices.

Lastly, we have to ensure that we are able to continue to offer an effective online teaching program. We are upgrading the school infrastructure to support live streaming from each classroom. I have consulted with SAS Switch to separate the Foundation Phase from the Primary/High school feed and to allow equal upload/download limits. We believe that a fiber connection is imminent and this will be a big help. Lastly we are assisting certain staff members with internet accessibility and digital capability to ensure that their online programs have value and are effective and can make use of online streaming options.

It’s going to be a cold weekend so stay warm and stay safe.

Brian Dawson

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