COVID-19 Update 11th August 2020
Firstly, we hope you and your family are well, rest assured we are keen to get activities up and running throughout East Lothian once more.
As I am sure you can appreciate, things are a little more challenging than previous years, and we are adapting our programme to accommodate new guidelines and procedures to ensure you and your child’s health and wellbeing are at the forefront of our work.
Our first priority is supporting our colleagues in Education, and helping the staff and pupils return to school. We will be helping where needed in schools, as well as getting to know the new pupils who have joined the school.
As the schools settle down, we will begin to put our programmes together, we have adapted the Scottish Government, sportscotland and Scottish Governing Bodies guidelines to ensure a safe, and FUN environment for pupils, coaches, volunteers and activity leaders.
Please take a few minutes to look at our Recovery Plan, Parent & Pupil Guidance and Coaches, Volunteers & Activity Leaders guidance pdf's at the foot of this article.
In line with these guidelines we will be arranging outdoor activities first, though with no access to changing rooms, pupils will have to arrive changed to participate. Our dates and times will have to adapt to accommodate these and the other guidelines.
Instead of our traditional “launch day” of each clusters Activity programme, we will be bringing activities online throughout the term. Bookings and signing up for all Primary & Secondary activities will only be available via our Online Booking System. Once activities are available, the links will be added to your Active Schools in your Area Page.
Initially the opportunities will be limited, but we hope that as facilities open, volunteers and coaches become available, we will be able to bring back most of our previous activities for all to enjoy.
Frustrating as it is, some venues may take longer than others to open. There will be good reasons for this.
For example, to help our Primary Schools manage new procedures, we will be basing our outdoor activities at Secondary School, Enjoy Leisure and Community Club sites.
Rest assured, as soon as we can, we will be starting activities at Primary Schools, until then we hope primary school children will be able to attend the cluster activities at the sites mentioned above, or continue to enjoy their local parks and play areas.
Though we hope to have activities running in August and September, some may take longer than others to start because of the local challenges. As we overcome these challenges, we will bring them back to life and fill them with fun, laughter, and noise.
Please follow your local Active Schools Co-ordinator’s Social Media channels for the most up to date information.
Best Wishes.
Mark Urwin, Senior Active Schools Co-ordinator.
