A HEADTEACHER has spoken about the measures teachers and staff are taking to support pupils during the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, schools across the country have been working hard to help keep pupils safe, happy and learning.

But additional challenges, including maintaining bubbles and increased safety measures, have meant that many teachers have had to learn new skills and introduce new methods to adapt to the rapidly-changing environment.

Sabina Saeed, principal at The Olive School, Bolton, told how teachers had pulled out all the stops to keep pupils safe and engaged with their learning.

She said: “Our teachers and non-teaching staff have been going above and beyond to ensure our pupils have been able to thrive in this extremely challenging environment.

“The safety of our pupils and staff is, of course, our primary concern and we are all working exceptionally hard to protect our school community,” she added.

“One of biggest challenges many teachers in the area are facing is ensuring that pupils are able to access consistent and continuous education so that they don’t fall behind. Obviously, if pupils are off school due to Covid-19 we need to ensure that they are still able to continue their learning at home and that it meets the same high standards as it would if they were in school.

“During lockdown, our staff have been teaching live, online lessons to ensure our pupils’ education wasn’t interrupted and they continued to make progress despite the school being closed to most pupils.

“Even our youngest children, in the Early Years groups, have benefited from our live lessons, which have included live story-times, phonics and numeracy lessons.

“Throughout the pandemic, our SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) lead has been helping to adapt provision for our SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) children by scheduling special 1-1 online classes for those who are shielding or self-isolating.

The principal also described how the school was helping to care for the wellbeing of families after local Covid-19 restrictions left many feeling isolated.

Mrs Saeed said: “We recognise that the pandemic has taken a huge toll on the wellbeing of our parents, as well as our pupils, so we have been very keen to look after parents’ wellbeing too.”

During lockdown, The Olive School and Eden Boys’ School, Bolton, ran a foodbank which helped almost 350 families from the local community in just under two months. T