ALL young people are more vulnerable at this time. Their world and routines have been turned upside down. They are being told to physically and socially distance themselves. As we acknowledged in school, this is counter-intuitive to us as human beings who are social beings and we constantly encourage them to reach out to one another in friendship, kindness and compassion.
This is continuing as a key message and we develop creative ways to build connections and sense of community.
A Pastoral Support Class has been set up for every year group, to provide pupils with support on how to access Google Classroom.
Form teachers and the senior leadership team are supporting.
A `pastoral support request ticket' can be completed by the pupil or parent if they need help.
Pupils and parents have been given ideas on how to make a timetable/coping calendars to make their day easier.
They have been set pastoral tasks, such as write a letter to NHS carers in the community and the best will be shared on social media to thank them for their inspirational work.
Or write a letter to grandparents to tell them how much they are missed. Start a diary/memory scrap book to record ideas and feelings - something to reflect on when we get through this period.
A call log for each year group has been created and all pupils are contacted by senior staff, our youth worker and pastoral support worker.
REACH Mentoring were in contact with pupils they had been seeing in school for the first week - however this support has now ended, though they will take an emergency referral if needed.
The phone calls and emails sent home from form teachers is especially being welcomed by parents and carers. We have received a lot of positive feedback and thank you messages.
The school counsellor and CAPS (Child and Parent Support) continue to engage with pupils they had been engaged with and the counsellor is happy to support others if requested.
Over 40 families have been identified by the Pastoral Support Team. Their names have been forwarded to the North Lurgan Community Area and food hampers have been delivered. These families will also receive an Easter hamper.
Some outstanding work has been taking place by the SEN department. All pupils with statements have been contacted. Classroom assistants are supporting pupils via email, phone-calls and texts. Teachers have included assistants in their Google Classroom so 1-1 support can be provided.
Pupils with no access to computers/wifi were given home learning packs and in some cases, laptops made available.
Our SEN coordinator contacts vulnerable pupils directly, and speaks to them on a regular basis.
Teachers are emailed on behalf of the parents if a pupil has a difficulty in a subject. The learning support classes are all closely monitored by SEN department. Any pupil who is not accessing Google Classroom - the year teams have been made aware of this and phone-calls offering support have gone home.
A visually impaired pupil has had work printed off and sent home. Special consideration for access arrangements need to be looked at for one of our Year 14 pupils who is in a wheelchair. He has full time classroom assistant hours and is expected to complete work at home.
Significant time was spent before the closing of school working with the safeguarding team, social services and other schools to identify the best approach.
A safeguarding WhatsApp group has been established and Google doc to log all calls/concerns with access for the full team.
Social services are attempting to recruit emergency foster carers as they are starting to get fallout from families finding the isolation very difficult especially when there are other domestic issues. I suspect schools will begin to encounter this reality in the weeks to come.
We are concerned that before this crisis, the resources of social services were already stretched, we can only imagine how they are currently coping with the volume of work at this time and this worries us.
The Child Protection Support Service for schools has provided guidance which we have considered and adapted as appropriate.
Vulnerable pupils are in contact with the safeguarding team.
School emails are being used to link with pupils who may feel isolated - this supports online connections.
The head boy and girl engage with the student body through social media platforms.
We are going to really need support when we return to school to support our pupils especially in relation to mental health issues that we believe may manifest themselves when things settle.
Communication has been a key factor and challenge. We are using all our platforms and forms of communications for different groups connected to St Ronan's - Facebook/Twitter/Instagram, college app, email, Google Classroom. As principal, I am sending out separate weekly communication on the app to pupils, parents, staff and governors.
We are working hard and creatively to continue to reinforce our sense of community with `shout outs' to past pupils working in the frontline of the health service, positive mental health messages, a fun video showing connectivity produced by the staff, as a Catholic school reinforcing our faith community, calling for prayers.
I cannot commend the staff highly enough for their hard work and commitment and would like to thank the governors and parents for their outstanding support of the college. I also want to let our pupils know how very proud we are of them and how much we miss them.
Without them, the school is only an empty building and we look forward to the day we can welcome them all back to St Ronan's College and to the buzz of learning and teaching in our classrooms.
It is at times such as these that we see the very best in one another and I have been privileged and humbled to lead the college during this critical time.
