Getting ready - re-opening our schools

It’s all systems go! We are very pleased with the way in which remote learning is going and so now we turn our attention to the next academic year at Worskop College and welcoming a number of children back at Ranby for the last 4 weeks of term.

In September we’re launching our brand new co-curricular Programme at Worksop College and we’re excited to share that with you all. It’s also our 125^th year, so lots to look forward to.

At Ranby House, we have just started accepting children from age 2, so we’re getting our building ready and welcoming new staff and new children across a number of year groups.

In terms of our physical buildings and infrastructure, we have a core team of people working to get both schools back up and running, looking at what measures we need to put in place to ensure the safety of our whole community.

Absolutely! We are working on a ‘virtual’ plan for the Transition Days that are due to take place in June. This will include opportunities for classmates to ‘meet’ each other, lesson sampling and a way of young people getting together ‘informally’ too. While we may not be able to get together over a BBQ in our usual way, we’ll do our best to recreate the community spirit we’re famous for!

The Admissions Team should be your first port of call. The team works all-year round and are currently set-up in their home offices, so please do give them a ring or drop them an email – admissions@wsnl.co.uk or 01909537171

We have placed orders as early as possible in order to plan for delays in delivery that may occur due to interruptions in the supply chain. We are working on how we make the purchase of uniform as safe as possible and are in the process of looking at an online ordering system to make purchasing more efficient and safe. As soon as we are able to share this information, we will. Please be aware that this is likely to be towards late July.

We don’t know how long the social distancing rules will apply and so we are planning accordingly. This includes a number of measures, ensuring adequate space between desks, maximum numbers of pupils in classrooms and looking at how we may need to reconfigure Boarding Houses. There will be staggering of meal times in order to reduce traffic in our corridors and we are also looking at a one-way system put in place to aid social distancing.

We increased the number of sanitising stations in early March of 2020, but we will increase these again as we prepare for September and beyond.

We know that some activities and sports may still be prohibited by September and so we’re looking at our timetable and reconfiguring it to ensure full and exciting programmes that are social-distancing-compliant and yet create amazing opportunities for all pupils.

As it currently stands, anyone coming into the UK is required to self-isolate for a period of two weeks. It is likely that we will insist on this for all international pupils – both for their own safety and for the safety of the wider community. This may take place at the home of the pupil’s UK-based Guardian or we may be able to accommodate pupils at a Boarding House on-site. If you are an international family who needs a UK Guardian, please get in touch – we can help.

As you may be aware, the UK government has already lifted restrictions on some types of sport and we expect this to continue as we move through the summer. However, there are some sports and activities that are more ‘non-contact’ than others and so it’s likely that we may alter our sports fixture programme, accordingly. We’re also looking at how we can make use of technology to enhance what we’re offering from September.

At this stage, we don’t know whether wearing facemasks will form part of UK government guidelines in September. However, we are already in touch with a manufacturer who is on standby to supply face coverings if this were to be the case.