Blog 26.6.20

As you can imagine Milford Haven School has been a hub of activity this week preparing for the return of some of our pupils next week. I am aware that over the last few weeks alot of information has been shared with you, but please rest assured that if you ever need to refer back to the information contained in letters we send home a copy can always be found on our ‘Letters Home’ page on the school website. 

The focus of the planned sessions starting next week are to check-in on pupils’ wellbeing, catch-up on their effort and engagement regarding their online learning and prepare pupils for future weeks. These days on site will not replace the existing online learning.Instead, they will reinforce, support and run alongside the continuation of our online learning provision.

As you may have seen on our Facebook page already alot of additional signage has been put up around school this week to support a safe return for some of our pupils, this should hopefully make the transition back to us as easy as possible with some new rules in place. 

With regards to school transport from next week, active travel is advised (walk, scooter) wherever possible by WAG, followed by private (car) and only if absolutely necessary by public transport (bus).

As a school we would always advise Active travel (walk, scooter), wherever possible, followed by private and
when it is only absolutely necessary to come by public transport or school bus. As indicated by WAG on Tuesday 9th June 2020 it is virtually impossible to maintain social distancing on public transport, therefore they issued advice that face coverings should be worn at all times when travelling on public transport.
If you absolutely must use public transport in order to access schools, Pembrokeshire County Council in their FAQs explain that “We will have the exact same issues on school transport and although we will be ensuring as much distance between passengers as practically possible this may not always be 2m and therefore we would advise all pupils to wear face coverings to ensure not only their own safety but that of everyone travelling on the transport.”

What if 2020 isn’t cancelled?

What if 2020 is actually the year we have been waiting for to see real change across the world.
What if 2020 is the year that we finally have the time to reflect on our own actions, and implement change where it is needed for us to be better versions of ourselves.
What if 2020 is the year that we band together instead of pushing each other further apart.
At Milford Haven School we feel that 2020 isn’t the year that everything was cancelled, but rather it might just be the most important year of all.

With that in mind we are launching an exciting new project at MHS this year called ‘Let’s All Be Better’. A huge thanks to our Head Boy and Head Girl who have been extremely proactive in supporting this initiative, and have been instrumental in developing the resources- without you both this project would not have grown into the fantastic learning tool it has become.

The ‘Let’s All Be Better’ message has been stencilled 20 times in secret locations around school by our wonderful Head Boy and Head Girl. We will be working this term on developing a QR code to go with each stencil, and from September all pupils will be invited to take part in this information scavenger hunt to develop their knowledge on various topics through the resources linked to each QR code. Some of the categories selected by our Head Boy and Head Girl include:
*Let’s all be better friends.
*Let’s all be better at looking after our own mental health.
*Let’s all be better at challenging inequality.
*Let’s all be better at speaking out about racism.

We are hoping that even if pupils do not want to take part in the full scavenger activity, just by stencilling our ‘Let’s All Be Better’ message across the school this will give people a really simple starting point to open up conversations. It hopefully prompts some self reflection, and recognises we can all be better in some way.