BSCS Lettings Update

Dear Hirer(s)

Thank you for bearing with us during recent weeks whilst lockdown has slowly eased. As many of you will know we remained open – as did many schools around the globe - for children of key workers as well as for our more vulnerable students. During these uncertain times it looked at one point as though we would not be returning to lettings until January however, we are now in a position to provide you with a more concrete plan of where we are at, when we are aiming for as well as what that looks like.

Many of you have been in touch to let us know that your particular activity has been given the all clear to regroup by the government as long as you follow their clear guidelines. Of course this has been helpful to understand however as a place of education as well as of community use our duty of care extends to a much broader group of individuals. With this in mind we are sure you will understand that there is a delicate balance to be maintained as the health and wellbeing of our students as well as all of our staff is paramount to our existence.

Not only do we need to reassure all of our staff that this is a safe place to be, we also need to reassure the parents of our students that this is a safe place for their children to remain.

The virus has touched the lives of all of us both in the way that we live and the way in which we work and interact so we have thought long and hard about how we can respond to you, our lettings community, who are desperate to return to your sporting activities and the sense of ‘normality’ that this grouping together for sport or exercise & wellbeing brings.

We ask first then that you take some time to reflect upon the plan outlined below and, if there are any queries, to please address these using the following email address; all of your messages will be picked up during the summer weeks provided that you send them to: lettings@bradleystokecs.org.uk

Announcement

1. Outdoor &  Indoor Facility Hire will be reintroduced but it will be done in phases & will follow a set plan

Our primary concern is for our students and it is important that after such a long break our focus should be upon them, and upon reassuring them (and ourselves) that we can follow the new guidelines and new school layout and remain safe in this ‘new normal’ way of being together as an all-through school. For this reason there will be no lettings at all either during the summer break or in the first two weeks of term 1 in September.

2. Social Distancing & PE Curriculum

Owing to the need for our Sports to be managed differently all of the PE Departments across South Glos have agreed that Term 1 this year will be as per Term 6 ie Athletics & Summer Sports and this will remain until the October half term. There will be NO football / rugby pitch markings before half term in October.

3. Settling Period – Indoor & Outdoor Hire

During the 3^rd week of September the school Leadership & Lettings Teams will assess how staff, students & parents have ‘settled’ into their new routines and will review current plans to reopen for Lettings after half term.

• Outdoor Hire: Provided all is well during week 3 then all of our Outdoor hirers will be phased in separately in line with a set plan; to this end all Main Contacts (as noted on your Booking Forms) will be contacted individually via email with full details. Not all outdoor facilities will reopen at the same time which is why you will all be contacted separately during week 3.

• Indoor Hire: All Hirers of our Indoor Facilities will be contacted individually via email by wc Sept 21st; indoor hire is the most affected side of Lettings as far as the school is concerned. We recognise that our Indoor Hirers are also keen to get back in and we will manage this as carefully as we possibly can for all concerned. Do please bear with us whilst proposals are drawn up and plans put in place - emails will be drafted ready to be sent out wc Sept 21st

We  recognise that the above announcement may be disappointing but won’t be altogether unexpected. We trust that whilst it may not give you your specific start date as yet, what it does give you is our assurances that we are taking the re-opening of our school to the wider community very seriously. For those of you who hire across other schools within the Olympus Academy Trust please remember that we are all slightly different in terms of our scale, size & facilities; BSCS is the only all through school within The Trust. We are similar to ACS in that we do not have the number of pitches to allow for athletics as well as grass training and so in our case Athletics will take precedence.

We thank you for your continued support & understanding and ask that you all please keep safe until we are able to be together again.

On behalf of all of the Leadership, Lettings & Site Teams here at BSCS.