So much work, from staff at all levels, has gone into making the school as Covid safe as possible whilst balancing the much needed return to learning and a sense of community and togetherness again for our September return. The senior leadership team were involved in regular Covid safety meetings and all feedback from students, parents, carers and staff had been discussed and taken into consideration. The goal remained and still remains for the school to work within the Government and Public Health England guidelines, whilst providing students with as broad a curriculum and learning experience as possible.

After experiencing the most unique and challenging first 8 weeks of the academic year for all of us in the Bushey Meads community, students were given the opportunity to share their experiences, feelings and suggestions through a student survey to review our systems and protocols.

It was extremely pleasing that 507 students responded to the survey and is testament to how involved our students wanted to be in shaping how the school moves forward in terms of Covid safety. Below are some summary statements of the main findings:

Key Points

1. Students commented that they are pleased with the measures the school has put in place but would like some modifications made to the one-way system to make H Corridor less crowded.
2. Most students feel a bit safer since the introduction of face masks.
3. Students are divided about the need to wear face masks in lessons. Some commented that they think that the classrooms are safe enough and the wearing of face masks will hinder learning and participation in class. 42% of students think it is necessary to wear a mask in lessons, 18% are ambivalent and 39% think it is not necessary to wear a mask in lessons.
4. Most students feel less safe since the introduction of the one-way system.

Times Students Feel Safest

• Students feel safest travelling to school and entering the school (72 – 80% feel safe or very safe)
• Students generally feel safe in their outdoor zones (67% feel safe or very safe)
• Students generally feel safe in the food queues (78% feel indifferent or comfortable)
• The majority of students feel safe in lessons (82% feel indifferent or safe)
• The majority of students feel indifferent or safe getting changed for PE (81%)

Statistics related to Wearing of Face Masks

• 22% of students opted to wear a mask in school before it was compulsory and the vast majority of these students (92%) felt comfortable doing this even if most students weren’t wearing masks
• For the 80% of students who chose not to wear a mask about 45% of these didn’t because they felt awkward about wearing one
• Now masks are compulsory at certain times, students feel comfortable wearing a mask on a busy corridor (68%) and almost the same in food queues (60%)
• About 30% of students feel uncomfortable wearing a mask in Year group assemblies.
• Despite 42% of students answering that masks were fairly or very necessary in classrooms, 82% of students felt very safe, safe or indifferent in classrooms.

Statistics related to Year group assemblies

• Before masks were compulsory for Year group assemblies, 40% of students felt safe or very safe and 39% of students felt unsafe
• After masks were made compulsory for Year group assemblies, 15% more students felt safer (55% felt safe or very safe) and 7% less students felt unsafe (only 32% felt unsafe)Statistics related to the One-Way System
• Before the one-way system was introduced 75% of students felt safe and only 11% of students felt unsafe
• This changed dramatically after the one-way system was introduced (insisted on through an action plan from Public Health England).
• After the one-way system had been introduced only 30% of students felt as safe (a drop of 45%) and 50% felt unsafe (an increase of 39%).

Statistics related to the Work Provided on Google Classrooms

• 57% of students are happy with the work provided on Google Classrooms compared to 21% who are unhappy.

Statistics related to the Signage Around the School

• 43% of students found the signage helpful and 29% found it unhelpful.

Comments

Students were given the opportunity to add comments and so many students did. These were all read carefully by the Senior Leadership Team and formed a big part of the discussions that followed all results being analysed. Many thanks to all the students for taking the time to write these comments and also making some positive suggestions. A small selection of these comments have been included below:

“My thoughts on the one-way system are that it is in place because of Covid guidelines, which I am happy about, but everyone is following the same one way system through H Block making an already narrow corridor feel more unsafe with potentially a hundred people in a small space. My idea for the one-way system is that different year groups should have different one way systems to redirect “traffic” from hubs like H block and the space between C and L block.”

“With regards to the one-way system, though I do believe that it is limiting face to face contact , I also think that because of the one-way system a lot of congestion and overcrowding in specific parts of the school has occurred. Especially at times before and after class, H Block specifically seems way too overcrowded to be safe even with the one-way system in place. You have teachers sometimes having to walk against the one-way system to be on time to their own classes and you have students waiting outside their classrooms for their teachers, which in my opinion defeats the whole purpose of it.

My solution to help with the overcrowding is to maybe allow older students of the sixth form to instead of walking through H-Block to get to the sixth form centre by walking outside of the school and entering through the outside entrance to sixth form – I know that this does not completely take out the issue of overcrowding, but I do believe that this will help ease congestion during the times of the day when everyone is traveling to a different place in school. I can understand that these times must be very tough on the school and that the school is trying their hardest to maintain a safe environment for all students and make sure that we all are getting the best value of education as possible.”

“I feel like that while the one-way system needs to be in place, it could have been designed better to avoid clogging the H Block corridor. Maybe this could be improved by adding additional ways through the quad.”

“In group assemblies, wearing masks is important and before, I did not feel as safe as I do now, wearing a mask in assembly.”

“I hope the government/school will not implement the wearing of masks in classes, because they are uncomfortable to wear, they make the jobs of our teachers much harder as they would be given the additional responsibility of policing the wearing of masks and teachers will not be able to teach effectively as they will be unable to read our facial expressions. From a student’s point of view, the sanitising of tables and the lack of movement in classes makes me feel more comfortable than wearing a mask does.”

“I like that the school is following government guidelines with masks in corridors however there are still a handful of students continuing to avoid this when they can, so I hope that the school does more to enforce the importance of face coverings.”

“I think after school clubs should still go ahead as we stay in our year group bubbles when we do them. We spend time with each other all day, so I don’t see why an extra hour will make a difference.”

“The sanitizer dispensers around the school are great!”

As a result of the survey, one big change has already been implemented – the one-way system has been adapted taking into consideration the comments from both students and staff. We hope this will make things much better for everyone and we will review the one-way system again at the end of this term.

Graphs and charts
Below are charts showing the results of all the questions from the survey. Once again, many thanks to all of the students that completed the survey.