Blogpost by Lucia Glynn
Head of Operations at BMAT

THE call came from one of our Assistant CEOs, the second day after we returned from February half-term. Two pupils, siblings, at one of our secondary schools had returned from a skiing holiday in northern Italy, and were displaying symptoms of COVID19 – what should the school do? Hastily finding guidance on the web, I asked for the pupils to be isolated and sent home. These students were swiftly followed by other staff and students across our schools, who had recently travelled to destinations badly affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Seeking advice from Public Health England, we took decisive action, sending home staff who were pregnant, and both staff and students with medical conditions to self-isolate and protect themselves from the virus.

Our HR team managed a high volume of individual queries and concerns, and ensured the guidelines, which continually shifted, were followed. We implemented new rigorous cleaning routines in our schools, both by our Estates and Facilities teams, and by our incumbent contract cleaner, Ridgecrest, aiming to protect staff and pupils from this invisible enemy. I lost a few days of my life in the queue waiting for advice from the Department for Education’s coronavirus hotline!

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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/navigating-through-uncertainty-half-term-well-always-lucia-glynn/