St Herbert’s school head teacher Shelagh Hughes has praised her staff who have “pulled together” to make the difficult coronavirus lockdown as positive as possible.
In a letter to parents Mrs Hughes wrote: “Everyone has been working above and beyond the call of duty since the lockdown was announced and I hope you feel that you haven’t been abandoned.”
Pupils are doing home schooling during the lockdown and have been able to access lessons online with teachers uploading tasks, links, challenges and games.
“Staff have become very inventive in their teaching methods, often using video as a means to try and make learning more realistic and fun. The feedback we have had more recently is that families are finding new routines in terms of learning, which are working well. We are still monitoring the systems and adjusting things as issues or ideas crop up,” said Mrs Hughes.
The school has also released a video of the staff singing and dancing to S Club 7’s year 200 hit “Reach for the Stars” to raise funds for the NHS and morale in the whole school community. Teacher Mrs Cox came up with the idea and put the video together, while her colleague Miss Greenwell created the photo collage (pictured) at the start after the staff members had sent in their pictures.
During the first week the video has had 14,000 views, and Mrs Hughes said: “I think the whole project came at a time when lots of us were beginning to feel the isolation. So it was a perfect fun project for everyone.” The video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/vJKoqigS1q4
This week Reception and Nursery classes have been creating a “toilet roll toss” video which should be available on the school’s website shortly. Discussions are also taking place about also putting the school’s popular annual music concert, which was due to take place on 16th June, on Youtube.
Meanwhile, St Herbert’s School is being used as the Keswick Area Childcare Hub for key workers’ children and vulnerable pupils from the school in Trinity Way and the primary schools in Braithwaite, Borrowdale, Threlkeld, and also from Keswick School.
Each day staff are welcoming between 10 and 18 pupils and numbers are growing. Staff from all the schools have volunteered to work on a rota at the hub, despite knowing they are potentially at increased risk from becoming infected with the Covid-19 virus.
Mrs Hughes said: “I am very grateful to them all for enabling us to provide the childcare that is so vitally needed. Heads from the local primaries have been very supportive and have been just as involved in the rota and running of the hub as Keswick School head teacher Simon Jackson and I have been, which has been very helpful.”
