As you know, school is now opening on Wednesday 24 June for the Year 11s. This has been the directive from the Ministry of Education for the moment. We have been told and we are waiting for confirmation of 1 July for Early Years but I must repeat here that we are waiting for confirmation.
The good news is that yesterday we had a visit from the MoE, who looked at our SOPs, our documentation and the arrangements we have made with regards to marking of social distancing and classroom configuration, and they have given us the green light to reopen the school. As you can imagine I am delighted by this. Furthermore, Year 11 parents have already been given the SOP’s and on Monday a zoom meeting with all Year 11 parents and PTF will occur to go over the arrangements and SOP’s.
To remind you, here are some of the SOPs that we have put in place for all staff and students to follow the social distancing guidelines provided by the MoE.
One arrival point at school (Point A - main stairway to the school from the car park – please note that I ask parents NOT to get out of their cars when dropping children off)
On arrival, temperature checks are taken.
- After temp checks, learners and teachers should be in their classrooms by 7:45 am.
- Floor markings show walking flow, e.g., use the side stairs to walk up, the central atrium stairs to walk down.
- Classroom desks are 1m apart in all directions and students have to remain in their individual working space.
- Breaks will be timetabled, but learners will be restricted to classrooms and allowed to leave for washroom breaks and lunchtimes.
- No sports allowed during break times, these will be managed by teachers inside each classroom.
- Students have a limited time on-site so arrival at school and returning home should be near the start and end of school times, e.g., arrive close to 7:30 am and leave no later than 4:00 pm.
- A packed lunch will be available by pre-order, or learners can bring their own lunch.
Furthermore I ask all parents to please make sure not to send your child to school if they are not feeling well or if in particular they have a high temperature. I would ask parents to be very vigilant on this and ideally to please take temperatures before they are sent to school.
I also ask please that your children be provided with x2 face masks each day they attend school. As part of our SOP guidelines is that a face mask should be worn when arriving and moving around the school, however they are not compulsory inside the classroom. Lastly If your child has a medical concern such as respiratory condition then I recommend highly that you may want to consider a face shield as an additional item.
Lastly I need to ask you that if you need to come to school for any reason for example to see me, pay fees to finance or to see any members of staff please be advise that you will need to make an appointment. This is to limit the number of people in school at any one time in accordance to MOE's guideline.
On another matter, another reminder that Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 June which were scheduled as staff training will now be used as replacement days. For the Year 11s, this will be done in school but for all other years it will be via online learning.
I am very excited to be going to school and hope that it won’t be too long now before all the other years are allowed back.
Thank you and have a good weekend.
Stefano Piumatti
Principal of Taylor’s International School Puchong