Monday, May 18

A number of the parents of our youngest children have been slow to respond to the offer of a school place.

Perhaps, like the unions, they are waiting for more evidence that school will be safe before making a decision.

At the moment, it is looking like less than half of these year groups will return when the government say it is safe to invite them back.

Spent the afternoon in a Zoom meeting with the Nursery, Reception and Year One teachers. Really helpful.

The staff at North are brilliant.

They have their worries and fears about having the youngest children back in school but all their questions and suggestions were about making their rooms as safe as is possible.

Conversations with other staff groups are planned through the week to build staff confidence and provide me with the detailed knowledge I need to complete the Risk Assessment.

Tuesday, May 19

The LA Risk Assessment pro forma leaves no aspect of school life unconsidered. Twenty-five pages.

Spent the day completing what I can.

More conversations with the site manager, office staff, head of kitchen and support staff are required.

Wednesday, May 20

More councils around the country are saying the risk is too high to open schools to the priority year groups on June 1, some citing that the infection rate and death rate is higher in their location.

It makes sense to think like this.

Knowing the local picture seems to be a better basis for decision making.

After all, the R number could be lower than national which could actually boost confidence.

It does not have to be a bad news story.

This could be helpful to the government because they still need to build confidence among parents and school staff.

Last week I asked the Director of Education about the Essex R number.

In my conference call with her and union reps this morning she informed us that the R number for the East of England is 0.71. There is no figure for Essex. London’s is currently 0.4.

Mrs Shuter, the Head of Kitchen, is planning a menu for the little children with food that does not require a lot of cutting up because many of our four and five-year-olds still need help with this.

She has also given thought to how the children can get their lunch without queuing at the servery.

The kind of attention to detail that is required in these strange times.

Thursday, May 21

School will look and feel different. Parents know that.

This message was reinforced when the temporary school rules were emailed to them this morning along with a new Home School Accord.

I wrote: “We are establishing rules to help everybody feel safe and be safe.

"If you do not feel that you and or your child can conform to these rules then you should reconsider your acceptance of the school offer.

"Similarly, if we feel that a parent or child’s behaviour does not conform to the new rules then the offer may be withdrawn.”

Some parents may find this alarming.

The rules are a million miles away from the warm, welcoming community that is North.

But while social distancing remains in force, this is how we will run the school for the safety of everybody in it.

So some parents may actually find the stark and clear message reassuring.

Spent a lovely hour with former North pupil Sonia Watson, from BBC Radio Essex.

Sonia wanted to record a piece on school preparations for her breakfast show. We walked and talked.

I showed her the yellow dots at 2m intervals, which indicate where children and parents will wait outside the Nursery.

I showed her what we are doing in the classrooms – creating workstations for ten children where they will keep their belongings and have their own stationery set. Sharing and collaborating – the foundation of all happy, vibrant classrooms will have to be discouraged.

Nikki Greatorex, from the Colchester Foodbank, rang me.

They will provide food vouchers for all our eligible families during half-term and the whole of the summer break.

That is amazing. I told her I would be clapping for her too at 8pm.

Friday, May 22

Last day of the half-term.

Today the whole school would normally be running round Hilly Fields to raise money for our Free For All campaign.

The 24 children in school were allowed to wear their sporty clothes and did their running on the Astro.

Our sports coach, Mrs Eves, calculated that in total the children ran 43 miles – which if they had done it as a relay heading North East would have got the last child on to Aldeburgh beach!

The School Change Team convened for a Zoom meeting this morning.

The School Change Team is a group that represents all the different staff and union groups in the school.

Two governors sit on it too.

It meets when the school is faced with a new challenge.

The last time it convened was when we were going through a redundancy process due to underfunding.

In previous years it has sat to discuss the school expansion to two form entry in 2012.

It enables all members of staff to feel they have a voice in major school affairs.

All staff groups are on board for welcoming our youngest pupils back.

Over the holiday we will continue to prepare and we will wait for the PM’s announcement which we are told will be made on the 28th.

If June 1 is not the date, it may be June 8 or June 15. Who knows, but we will be ready as we can be.