EDUCATION
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Guidance For Education Open Days and Evenings There is currently no specific guidance issued by Department of Education or Public Health England relating to open days or evenings. This guidance is general advice and it is the responsibility of each school to undertake their own risk assessment and satisfy themselves that they are mitigating any risks identified. In the event that local restrictions to control outbreaks have been imposed then schools will contact the WCF Education team and Council Public Health team prior to holding any open day or evening. Arrangements for open days and evenings should follow the same public health principles that apply to working safely in schools: Social distancing • schools should limit visitors during the regular school day while pupils are present. Open days should not be held on these n 32 | Worcestershire Now | Issue 200 | October 2020
days. For Open Evenings schools can chose to close early but should consider cleaning arrangements before and after the evening
presentations that demonstrate the activities
• schools should not hold presentations or talks where groups of people sit in rooms together. Alternatives to this could be virtual presentations, videos or online documents available for prospective parents, carers and pupils to download
controlled through the use of appointments.
• schools should consider how attendee adults and children interact with staff and subject areas whilst still complying with the social distancing principle of 2 metres or 1 metre plus. Activities that require or encourage “hands on” interaction should not take place. Alternatives such as teacher demonstrations, videos or ‘rolling’
could be used • the number of attendees should be
• attendees to open evenings should be reminded when they arrive to keep 2 metres distance from staff and other groups and to avoid unnecessarily touching surfaces and objects. It may be useful to reinforce that any children who are attending must be closely supervised by the adults in their group • any attendees over 11 years may be requested to wear face coverings. It is the school’s discretion whether they wish to CONTINUED OVER THE PAGE
