Whole School Assembly

[YouthClub]

Our school risk assessment is being updated, to allow whole school assemblies to restart. Large junior school that has around 500 children.
I’ve looked on the Government website and can’t see anything to say if this is allowed from tomorrow or 21st June, or in fact any information.
I don’t feel comfortable with this and what would happen if someone was to test positive?
We’ve been told the hall would be split into quadrants , but tbh it was a struggle to squeeze everyone in pre Covid anyway!
Anyone else had this or have an update on ‘the rules?

I've read the updated guidance and it still says that whole school assemblies are a no. I wouldn't feel great about it either, even though I'm sick to death of the alternative.

@mamaduckbone I agree about the alternative! Do you have a link to the updated guidance?

Guidance

Page 16:
You should avoid large gatherings such as assemblies or collective worship with more than one group

If this was my school, I would be sending the guidance to the head, specifically pointing out this statement, and asking why they feel that the risk in their school is sufficiently low and well-mitigated to be able to contravene the national guidance.

While it IS only guidance, and not law, the Head is responsible under Health and safety law for the risk assessment of their setting, and thus their position if this did cause an outbreak would be a difficult one.

We’ve been doing them outside since school re-opened in March. There are no plans for this to change in the near future.

Ditto, Whata. Anything larger than a single class bubble is not meeting inside at all, and that is not expected to change this term.

@Whatalottachocca

We’ve been doing them outside since school re-opened in March. There are no plans for this to change in the near future.

I wish we were. We're doing them in the classroom. It's tedious and I never ever get away from the little terrors!

Definitely a no no. Madness I think. It would be very hard to track and trace if there was a case. I don’t think even doing them outside is allowed in the guidance? Close contact is still close contact whether you’re inside or outside.

@Yellowmellow2 outside is fine. They line up in bubbles and are 4 metres apart. It’s not an issue. Fresh air is good for them 😉

Thanks everyone, I’ll wait until I see what the risk assessment says, and then bring up the guidance if need be.

I work in education and there are certain things that have come into the profession due to Corona that I hope continue. Here are three: class based assemblies on Teams (or zoom or whatever you prefer) Online staff meetings and most contentious: online parents evenings. I just think they will be better attended.