Brentwood School - Brentwoodian 2020

13 when you are talking to a group of students or staff to know who in the room is actually worried because the rules aren't strict enough and who is actually worried because they think the rules are going too far. In fact there's no wrong or right answer and there are all these different opinions, so the challenge we have is trying to make sure that everybody is listened to and everyone is heard. How did you overcome these challenges? I think I’ve already answered some of that; I believe we responded really well as a community. I was incredibly proud of how we found creative solutions in putting on all the things that we managed to do in the summer term. This term is more complicated but we are delivering sports, music and drama in different ways and CCF and the Friday activities are all happening, together with VSA but they are being adapted and I’m proud that all the students and the staff are buying into the idea, focusing on what we can do rather than what we can’t do. What was your reaction to the official reopening of school and as a school community, how do you think we have responded to these changes? I was delighted; I thought it was the right thing to do. It’s difficult to measure the impact of closing a school site, but there's a lot of evidence to say that closing down schools has a negative effect on young people, so when we were able to reopen I was very pleased. What I am very proud of, is the fact that, other than the face masks and one-way systems and different sort of rules, we have delivered and we are delivering something resembling a normal education. Since September it has been very different; it's been much more complicated having a school that is open but with all the rules that we had to put in place to keep everyone safe, so in some ways it was simpler to move the whole school online. Because some students and staff are self-isolating you now have complex situations where perhaps in one of your lessons some students are in the classroom and some at home and the teacher, too, might be at home trying to Zoom so, yes much more complex than it was in the summer term, but what have I learned? I have learned a lot about the community, the fact that we are a community focussing on what we can do and not what we can't do, and finding solutions to a problem. I am very proud of how everyone has stepped up to the plate and is managing. If you could go back in time one year and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be? That's a very difficult question; I would probably say to myself, and reassure myself that whatever is about to happen, whatever is coming, there will be answers, there will be solutions, and it will be fun; it will all work and everyone will pull together to make it work. Early on there was a lot of anxiety around the whole school; nobody had ever faced a situation like this in our lifetimes. How will we cope, what will we do, what will it be like? Well we have got through it so far in a good way and, with one hundred percent confidence, we will cope with whatever comes our way over the next few months so I think I would reassure myself that everything will be alright. By Inger Hansen