My college had 15 positive Covid cases in four days this week. Here's what we learned:
Be prepared
Have a system in place before that first call. Follow a flow chart. Pre-allocate tasks, such as who’s going to contact Public Health England, who will gather attendance/curriculum data and seating plans, who’s going to quarantine students).
Pre-write all communications, such as letters to staff, students and parents, press releases, website FAQs etc. You don't want to do this under pressure. Amazingly, I had completed all of this two days beforehand, spurred on by the positive case of a teacher in the school across the field.
Gather as much intelligence from the positive student as you can
We got better at this as we went along. Log all of the information on a spreadsheet. When did their symptoms start? When did they begin to isolate? What was their last attendance date? Had they been to any communal areas? And, most importantly: Where do you think you got this from? (The answer to the latter from all: at an 18th birthday party.) It was a relief to start piecing this together, making it less likely that the virus was going through the college like wildfire.
Coronavirus: What to do if a student tests positive
Background: How to support young adult carers through Covid-19
Student voice: What is it like for students to be back in class?
Share your intelligence with PHE and the LA
In our case, the local authority is Brighton and Hove City Council, and both the LA and PHE have been fantastic. I never had to wait more than 20 minutes for PHE to call back. You end up working with the same people – in the end, I had their mobile numbers. We spoke a lot. I would have names of positive students that they had not picked up on, and they would have names of cases that had not landed with us yet.
When cases come thick and fast (four one day, five the next...) it can feel overwhelming and creates stomach-churning anxiety. Remember all the groundwork that your risk assessments and mitigation measures are already providing. My senior management team have been incredible, as has my chair – use them as a sounding board.
One of the biggest things I’d stress is to have seating registers/plans. This was a last-minute decision for us. It has reduced the number of students needing to quarantine by 75 per cent. You will only have to isolate those within a two-metre circumference, so instead of isolating a whole class, we’d average between three to four students for every positive case.
Make sure you include these names on the spreadsheet next to the case in question, allowing you to easily track back any transmission in college. Isolating students has been a full-time job. Have a plan in place for this, so others can follow the system easily.
Think about what plan A, B, C is if the cases keep coming
What additional mitigation measures have you got in the locker? Talk these through with PHE. We went hard on distancing and face coverings, but had more drastic measures to turn to if necessary – however, these would have had a negative impact on learning in only the first week back.
Communication is vital, but you can't update everyone in real-time (we stopped this after the second case). Staff were briefed at least once a day. Students and parents were updated daily or every other day. It’s important to keep your union reps carefully in the loop. All communications were entirely transparent – we decided we would be completely upfront about the numbers. Reinforce preventative measures as often as you can.
I knew our staff were wonderful, but during this period they have been brave, calm and utterly professional. Everyone stepped up. Ensure you take the temperature, listen to feedback and respond visibly. People need to feel supported.
Parents are sympathetic, supportive and helpful. Mobilise this army to help get your key messages across to students, which for us was: "Maintain distance, and if you can't, wear a face covering when on-site." Students responded best to this when sent as short text messages to them all.
Students were compliant, they understood the need to change their behaviours, and were largely unfazed. They are happy to be back and don't want to return to learning in their bedrooms again. "Keep BHASVIC open" has been our mantra and they have related to this.
It was clear that additional staffing (Covid marshalls in previously unmanaged spaces) was needed to help students maintain distance. The cost of this, plus sanitisers and cleaning, is likely to be £100,000 this year. That’s our entire budget surplus. The ESFA are providing no additional money to cover these costs but Gavin Williamson and co must rethink this.
It's been brilliant to see the college "full" again (albeit operating at two-thirds capacity to help with distancing) and alive with the buzz of learners. It’s reassuring to know there has been no evidence of transmission on-site. PHE said it should tail off because of the single source – and, to date, it has.
We don’t want to have to go through that again, but the systems are there if necessary. Our latest text to students? "Keep BHASVIC open, stop that partying and maintain distance at all times!"
William Baldwin is principal of BHASVIC (Brighton, Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College)
