Hello and welcome to Heads Up
One of the things that we have been wanting to do for so long is to keep this introduction Covid-free, leave any guidance to a designated page and have this space for our business as usual. However, Covid does remain ‘business as usual’ and will need to be at the forefront of our thinking as we move at pace towards the Christmas break so that we can go into the holiday period with as low a number of cases as possible.
Having all of our pupils and students back in schools and settings does mean an inevitable transmission of the virus, although your work in limiting this has been admirable and is reflected in the relatively low level of cases in Warwickshire schools. However, with the take up of the vaccination still low in the 12-18 year old age group, it does mean that we are not able to fully utilise one of the most effective tools at our disposal in combatting the spread of the virus.
One of the barriers that has been identified is the anxiety of peer pressure for children being vaccinated at schools or settings. So you will see that there are now three locations in and around the county offering the vaccination outside of school settings and hours for children who feel uneasy getting vaccinated in the knowledge of their peers. Please help to push this information out to pupils in that age group and their parents and carers. If anxiety around being known to be vaccinated is an obstacle to its take up, this is a relatively simple way that we can help ease that.
Anxiety is high at this time of year with energy bills rising and the expense of Christmas adding to the pressure. You will have received a letter to distribute to parents and carers of children eligible for benefits-related free school meals, advising them of vouchers for energy, as well as supermarket vouchers, that are available to them through the government’s Household Support Fund grant. The parents and carers will receive a text or an email automatically but your help in making sure some of our less advantaged families know about this would be greatly appreciated.
On the subject of vulnerable families, it seems that one of the many great things done in Warwickshire over the last 20 months has been the Holiday Activities and Food programme – known as the HAF - which not only makes sure that children eligible for free school meals continue to receive food over the holiday period but also that they have scope for stimulating activity with their peers.
This will be returning for the Christmas holiday period so look out for more details in the coming weeks. This has been an absolutely resounding success with the numbers of children accessing the scheme and the gratitude of many parents and carers being worthy testament to how much it means to families who need it so much.
That’s all from me for the week. Enjoy the weekend, do get a bit of downtime and I hope to see many of you soon.
Chris Baird