Covid safety and security - Moorcroft School

1. Background

Moorcroft School fully reopened in September 2020. The School recognises that there may be interim or updated arrangements required in relation to its some of its existing policies.

The policy statements set out in sections 2 to 5 below covers the following policies:

Child protection and safeguarding
Health & safety
Behaviour
Attendance and exclusions

2. Child protection and safeguarding

The Trust’s child protection and safeguarding policies have been regularly reviewed during the period of school closures and partial reopening to reflect the delivery of home-based and blended learning.

The Board ratified a Covid-related appendix (see below) in April 2020 which was further updated and re-ratified by the Board in June 2020.

The Trust’s safeguarding hub are currently undertaking the annual review of the Child Protection Policy which will reflect any new required measures relating to the full reopening of schools from September 2020, along with contingencies should schools need to reimplement home-based or blended learning. This updated policy will be ratified by the Board at its first meeting of the 2020-21 school year, which will include the individual, school-based appendices. These will be published in the school website following ratification.

3. Health & safety

The schools’ detailed plans for a full reopening from September take account of all the necessary health and safety requirements to operate in line with those set out in the DfE’s planning guidance, guidance on the system of controls and any relevant PHE guidance. These will include, or are supplemented by Trust-wide guidance on:

procedures should a child or adult fall ill with the coronavirus on site, fall ill having recently been on site and/or if a number of people fall ill related to a particular site,
cleaning regimes and pre-opening checks/maintenance
amended arrangements for fire drills and evacuation procedures
requirements of our various local authority transport providers.

4. Behaviour

Staff will take appropriate account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on children’s’ behaviours, particularly in relation to reintegration. Appropriate standards of behaviour will need to be maintained, particularly where these may impact on the health, safety and/or wellbeing of other pupils and staff. Restraint policies and protocols will be risk assessed in line with the school’s re-operating protocols.

5. Attendance and exclusions

The school has followed DfE guidance in relation to both attendance and exclusions during the period of full/partial school closures and will continue to do so following full reopening from September. Appropriate arrangements, in line with DfE guidance and Covid-related closure periods, will be applied in cases where schools are required to close due to the imposition of local lockdowns or continuing shielding requirements for individual pupils.