I will start by wishing you all a happy new year although I know this is not the start that any of us would have wished for. I did say in my last blog that we had been lucky in that we had nobody in the school community contract COVID but as you all know several members of the school community had COVID over the holidays but with the number of cases that there has been in this part of the world it is hardly a surprise. Most people I know are ‘on the mend’ although we do still have a few suffering from the effects of the virus and I know you will join with me in wishing them a speedy recovery.

The majority of the school is now learning remotely and hopefully you will all be managing this at home. I know that nobody really wants this but you only have to watch the news each day to understand how necessary it is for everyone to stay at home (and stay apart). I have found the current situation quite stressful to manage but my stress is nothing compared to the pressure that hospital staff are under having to deal with the fallout from this horrible virus. When you watch the news you can see that some are starting to crack under the pressure. With this new mutant virus transmitting so much more quickly we all need to do our bit and stay at home and stop the spread until they can get it under control.

Whilst I have every sympathy with the front line workers trying to manage COVID something I do not understand is the government’s attitude towards education. In one breath they are saying they do not want schools closed and yet education staff are not a priority for getting the vaccine. Surely we should be a priority because if we get vaccinated all the children can return to school and their parents can carry out their work without the stress of having to support online learning. The government are trying to turn a lot of pressure onto education establishments by discussing exams and mentioning Ofsted as a threat as to what is considered poor quality education but all they are doing is trying to get parents attention away from the real problem which is teachers not getting vaccinated so they can carry out their jobs safely. If this happened all the issues that many children are suffering from because of the current situation would disappear. I do think that this would be a good point to raise with your local MP.

That is all for now. I hope you can all try and stay positive because at least with a vaccine being available we do know that an end to all of this will come. Look after yourself and do stay safe.