Patcham Infant School & Nursery Class

To our wonderful community

This week’s lockdown has seen some incredible sunshine and I hope you all managed to soak up some vitamin D and take in some fresh air. School has been tremendously hot but we managed to keep the children cool with an occasional dousing down from the sprinklers. Yet again it was a delight to welcome new children on Monday and so sad to say goodbye today.

There may be mixed feelings about the next stage of relaxations with openings within the hospitality industry and possibilities to start travelling further afield. The change from 2M to 1M ‘plus’ in itself does not solve any of the challenges schools currently face; class sizes will remain the same and the current model we have planned for, will continue until the end of term. We are, however, pleased that we will have been able to offer every child a short visit if families chose to do so.

The national Alert Level has now reduced from 4 to 3 which is a positive step forward. The government's intention is that all pupils return to school in September, and they will be releasing further guidance next week to assist us to prepare for a full return. We will be working with the LA and be involved in scenario planning as we will not be able to make any firm plans until much nearer the time. My hope is we get back to something similar to the old ‘normal.’

What we do know for certain is that we are in a constant state of change as we continue to move forward. Change is an essential and constant part of our lives ranging from the trivial (decorating a room in your house, buying a car or getting a new pet) to the more significant (getting a new job, being promoted, getting married or having a baby). Change can also be imposed on us or caused by us, evolutionary or revolutionary, routine or one-off, mundane or transformative. COVID-19 without doubt falls into the last categories and has been turbulent for us all. We may also know from our own experiences that when it comes to making changes, launching ourselves into action is often harder than it sounds, and can be less productive than we had hoped. COVID-19 thrust us into changes we have had little control over.

As we are coming through this pandemic, we may feel we are beginning to shift the position of control and recognise that there are things we can have power over and change. We have all found ourselves to be in a tough situation, we have all dealt with different levels of stress and anxiety, some of which we may still be holding on to. As a result of this, we may have become quite passive or very determined over managing the situation. However, now might be the time to ask ourselves what we have control over and how we can take action to make any changes. Whatever it is you need to make a change, allow yourself to put it at the top of the list rather than the bottom - big changes start with small steps!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, look after you and treat yourself like your most honoured guest!

Love Chris