York school 'ready for pupils to come back'
The Mount School's brought in extra safety features to protect children and staff.
Last updated 4th Sep 2020
The Mount School in York has told Greatest Hits Radio York that pupils and staff are raring to go next week for school restarting.
Next week (Monday 7th September) all age groups will be back in the classroom for the first time since lockdown started.
Masks will be mandatory for all secondary school pupils across the UK in corridors.
Deputy Principal of The Mount School for girls, Bridget Perks, told us: "we know from conversations with parents that pupils can't wait to get back into school. There's obviously a lot of questions that have been asked about safety features, and we've made a lot of changes.
"Who'd have ever thought that pupils and staff would say they can't wait to go back to school! But it is like a family here and getting back together is massive for us. The excitement is genuine".
"We are a small school but we have a very large site with spacious corridors. The movement around the school will be without the groups mixing".
"We have a massive one way system in place and the girls will be allocated a specific set of toilet facilities. Our facilities have been adapted and the desks have been moved apart. Everyone will have a specific desk labelled for them and it'll be the same desk for each lesson.
"We can do our social distancing well because of the large open spaces. We'll be out in the grounds a lot as well to do lessons, and the one way system will lead safely out there".
Bridget went on to say: "every individual girl will have an assessment of how their learning was, but also their mental well being. Some of the girls have been away for such a long time, so there'll be a focus on well being from personal tutors and teachers".