Pupils keep their distance in classrooms

Reception, Year One, and Year Six started to return to schools two weeks ago.

At Saint Mary’s in Boston, pupils began to return properly on Monday last week.

A spokesperson said last week: “The staff have been pleased to welcome back a number of EYFS, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils this week; it was so nice to see their smiling faces again! The children have responded well to the changes both around school and to the school day. We have enjoyed doing lots of good learning as well as some additional fun activities together too.

“We would like to thank our parents and whole school community for the support we have received over the last few weeks and months. We can’t wait to welcome more of our wonderful pupils back as soon as possible.”

Boston Pioneers and Fishtoft Academies have both been providing key worker and vulnerable pupil childcare for more than 60 pupils over the lockdown period.

The schools have taken a number of extra measures to deal with the wider return of pupils, including extensive training, smaller class sizes, and changing routines for arrival and collection.

Head for both schools Jo Bland said: “We are now just over a week into our phased re-opening and I am delighted to report that everything is running smoothly so far. Obviously some families have chosen not to return their children for a variety of reasons and that is completely their choice at this moment in time.

“Significant numbers of our pupils remain at home as we simply cannot fit them into the building.

“One of the most heart-breaking things for me was realising I would not be able to fit my Y6s into the building at Boston Pioneers.

“This was doubly-devastating as they are the Academy’s first ever y6 pupils - Boston Pioneers was a new school in 2013. Moving to secondary school is a critical time for any student and to not be able to support them in person is just dreadful.”

She said the schools were also continuing to provide home learning and were doing weekly check-ins by phone.