It gave me great pleasure this week, to welcome back the pupils and staff of New Bridge School. I couldn’t be happier that we are finally together again as our New Bridge community. I know that our staff team have been keenly awaiting the arrival of our pupils and judging by the mood in school this week, it would seem that our pupils were glad to be back as well!

It’s been a very different first week for all of us. Importantly, we’ve been adapting to the changes we’ve made around school to keep us all safe. I’m incredibly proud of the response of our pupils. They’ve coped superbly well with the new routines and new expectations. Hand washing, learning pods, bubbles, entrance and exit points, break times, lunchtimes; these are all new or different and require everyone to give that extra consideration to how we can look after each other that little bit more.

As importantly is giving everyone the chance to re-establish relationships with friends or colleagues who haven’t seen each other in a long time, some for nearly six months. We also have around 80 new pupils and many new staff. This week we’ve spent a lot of time getting to know each other again and ensuring we all feel safe and secure back in school. The resilience of our pupils has been astounding, quickly reconnecting with each other and our staff and becoming absorbed in their learning once again. Equally, the ‘can do’ spirit of our staff team, who have risen outstandingly to the task of settling over 300 pupils safely and happily back into school, has been an inspiration. It’s weeks like these that remind me how privileged I am to be part of such a wonderful community.

I’d like to finish this week’s blog by thanking all our parents and our transport providers for their support over the past week. With the school population now bigger than it has ever been and the need to ensure Covid safe practices, it’s fair to say it is now a military operation to ensure all our pupils can arrive and depart the school site safely and in a timely manner. Your continued support will help us to keep things running smoothly.

Until next week, take care, stay safe.

Gavin

Click here for this week’s news from Graham

You can find Dawn’s blog for the Learning Centre here

For news on our Key Stage 5 pathway groups at New Bridge College please click here

You can find Gavin’s previous blog posts here