Covid-19 policy
Classes are running again in person.
Members of the school can continue to use our membership website myPAD to access exercises, dance videos and other activities.
On this page you will find:
Introduction
Thank you all so much for your patience and continued support during this time. I know that each one of our students and their families will have had very different experiences throughout 2020.
There are many changes that I have had to make in order to safely reopen and to meet all the current rules and restrictions. Please read it all very carefully and if you’ve any questions please do be in touch and I’ll respond as quickly as I can.
All of these changes are to help minimise adult to adult contact and reduce the risk factors of transferring Covid-19.
We will follow the government advice for an educational setting that:
- staff, young people and children should stay at home if they are unwell with a new, continuous cough or a high temperature to avoid spreading infection to others. Otherwise they should attend education or work as normal;
- if staff, young people or children become unwell on site with a new, continuous cough or a high temperature they should be sent home.
Our continued plan for PAD is:
- If I, or one of my family members show symptoms or become unwell we will close PAD immediately unless a suitable cover teacher can be found whilst I have a Covid test.
- Please can we ask that you do the same. If any of your household show symptoms of Covid-19 or any other illness (as passing these around could weaken immune systems) please do stay home and avoid coming into PAD.
- Please notify us immediately if you or a family household member test positive for Covid-19 as we will need to take action to notify all who have been in a class with you and will close classes as necessary.
- Should students wish to bring their own hand sanitiser to class, feel free! Also if they would like their own towel to dry their hands on again feel free! All the buildings we use do have disposable paper towels available to dry hands on and antibacterial soap.
- We will take extra steps to keep surfaces cleaned throughout sessions and provide hand sanitiser for use at classes.
- We will limit use of props and mats in classes, all shall be cleaned after each use.
- All buildings we use are cleaned regularly by professional cleaning services.
- As parents, please can you encourage your child to wash their hands before entering their dance class.
- All students should have the correct footwear for class and will not be allowed to dance barefoot. Please ensure that shoes fit prior to returning to class. Dancing in just socks is not permitted for health and safety reasons.
Shorter class times
As you are hopefully aware, we are currently capped to a maximum of 15 students in a class to comply with social distancing. Therefore in order to do this we have had to reduce class lengths by half for our core classes in order to fit all students in. We also have to allow time for changeover times and additional cleaning to avoid congestion and limit adults gathering together.
With class times being shorter we will mix up from week to week how we deliver classes. We may squeeze in all subjects or we may focus on fewer elements and rotate subjects from week to week. The approach will be based on what works best when we’re back dancing. But don’t worry we will still continue our mixed dance education and as soon as lessons can resume to the way they were, we will teach all subjects in their lessons.
New Payment System
We are implementing a school management system called Coacha that takes payments using Direct Debit. There is a guide on myPAD about the new system and a walkthrough of what to expect.
You will receive an email from “Coacha” with a link to setup your payments.
If you’re currently paying via Standing Order, please follow the steps through Coacha to set up a Direct Debit and then cancel your standing order. We are no longer accepting cash payments to minimise the risk of infection.
Track & Trace
Our new class management system also has the ability to track and trace in line with Covid-19 risk assessments, as well as many other features that will make running PAD a lot smoother.
Drop off and Collection System
View the drop off and collection procedure.
As we approach winter and the evenings are already much darker, please be mindful of this when waiting outside for collections that it may be cold and visibility may be harder.
Face coverings should be worn inside buildings (even for drop off/collection) unless exempt for anyone age 12+ ( students do not need to wear a face covering whilst dancing, but should they choose to, that is fine).
Tots
Due to social distancing we are no longer able to have parents wait in the waiting room during Tots classes. Please ensure that your child has been to the toilet before dropping off.
Myself and my assistants will help with shoe changeovers. I’m aware that this might be a big ask for these younger members, especially after being in and out of lockdowns and being with parents. We will do our very best to encourage and support them to build their confidence to be away from parents for 30mins.
If they are not ready for this transition, please let me know and we can look at keeping them on a waiting list ready for hopefully a few months time when things may change. We will still need some parent volunteers for Tots classes.
As you can imagine with Tots age group I will not be expecting them to ‘ socially distance’ and understand that they will need much support during their classes. My assistants and I will work out what is an appropriate level of contact that we all feel comfortable with and believe is best for what we are doing. We will ensure that we are keeping up with regular use of hand sanitiser and washing hands as often as we can.
Physical contact in class
You may be wondering how we will teach acro with limited to no physical contact?
This has been a major concern for me with our return as we must ensure that acro is taught correctly even if without support and ‘spotting’ tricks. I have been following the training by acrobatic arts (one of our exam boards) who have been developing techniques for this.
We shall focus on the progressions of tricks and building foundations of strength and flexibility to hopefully enable us to progress but without as much need for a ‘hands on teaching approach’. This is all new to us and we will again be constantly in review as to how we teach to ensure what we do is safe, fun and engaging.
Tuck shop & Packed lunches
One temporary change to classes is that students should not bring food/ packed lunches with them to class. Please can students eat before or after their session. Students should however bring their own bottle of water to class. Please ensure that they remember this as we cannot allow students to share and we really don’t want to see a student becoming dehydrated.
Temporarily we will only be selling drinks on the Saturday tuck shop. Drinks will be priced at 50p for Simply Fruity & water bottles and £1 for other drinks. There will not be change available, instead a small honesty box. Please drop in the correct change if buying a drink.
We will keep both of these changes under review.
As most of you will know, I do eat during classes. I will need to continue to do this, as will some of my assistants if they are working for many hours. We will use hand sanitiser and also wash our hands often.
Parents
Since parents are asked not to enter dance studios/ buildings/ classes it is really important that you read the monthly newsletters. These will be emailed in the first week of each month. If you do not receive one, check your spam folder and if not there please email me and I can forward on to you.
Previous updates
Last updated 4th January 2021