Another major Doncaster school outlines plans to start to re-open in June

Trinity Academy, in Thorne, is hoping to see some of its pupils start to return to lessons on Monday June 8, if it confirmed that is safe to do so.

The school’s recently-appointed principal Wendy Adeniji said: “We are anticipating a further statement from the Government that following a meeting of SAGE (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, which provides scientific and technical advice to support government decision makers during emergencies), the five key Government tests for opening up the current lockdown have been met.

“It is likely that this announcement will be made to schools at the same time as the rest of the country hears the news - in the Prime Minister’s briefing on Thursday May 28. In this announcement, it is possible that schools will get the final confirmation that they should proceed to begin opening after June 1, 2020.

“The gap for reopening between the announcement on Thursday, during what would be the traditional half-term, and the June 1 is, quite frankly, not a very big lead time to finalise safe and robust planning. Therefore, Trinity Academy will be looking to reopen from Monday, June 8, once we have confirmed it is safe to do so.

“We remain open for the families of key workers and those children deemed to be vulnerable, as we have done since the lockdown started.”

Meanwhile, Helen Redford-Hernandez, chief executive of the Edenthorpe-based Brighter Futures Learning Partnership Trust, which runs Hungerhill School, Barnby Dun Primary Academy, Dunsville Primary School, Kirk Sandall Infant School, Kirk Sandall Junior School, and West Road Primary Academy in Moorends, said leaders at her trust had met on Thursday night (May 21), and considered all the current information provided by each school across the trust from parents, staff, headteachers and local governing boards. They decided to meet again next week to review a number of areas before ratifying any recommendation. The areas under review were risk assessments for all schools, availability of staffing, priorities for each school in the trust in terms of demands from parents, classroom sizes and net capacity.

She added: “I can say that although we have been working to June 1, as directed by the Government the decision is still subject to further review. The trust health and safety adviser has worked with each school and myself to produce detailed risk assessments for each school and it is becoming apparent that it is much more likely (likely not probable) that most schools in the trust would open for larger cohorts of children later than June 1 due to issues around supply of some health and safety equipment, increased demand from critical workers. They also feel it is sensible to wait for more information about the Doncaster ‘R’ value.”