We Are Taking Bookings!
With English schools reopening in September 2020, we are happy to take your bookings for the 2020-21 school year.
Where Things Stand
We plan to return to schools as normal in the autumn. The latest government guidance, published 2nd July 2020, states that peripatetic teachers may visit schools. That said, your school leadership will need to consider whether they are comfortable with visitors entering the school. We are happy to take a provisional booking to reserve a day for you while your leadership team makes that decision — there is no obligation while the date is in “pencil”.
If we cannot visit in person, we have new options we can offer.
Introducing Virtually Off the Page
Our teachers have created a new experience that aims to be “Covid Secure”. It offers all the enrichment, immersion and fun of our full-day workshops, but in a way compatible with coronavirus health requirements for schools. We are calling it Virtually Off the Page.
LEARN MORE ABOUT VIRTUALLY OFF THE PAGE
We have adapted seven of our most popular workshops to fit the new Virtually Off the Page model. Topics offered in autumn 2020 will be:
- Ancient Egypt
- Ancient Greece
- Roman Britain
- Viking Britain
- Saxon Britain
- Great Fire of London
- Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole
An eighth workshop, adaped from our History of Toys Day, is also in development.
Bookings
We are currently taking bookings from September onward for both our full-day workshops and our virtual days. Many schools are making provisional bookings at the moment — there is no obligation while the day remains “in pencil” — and making plans to use the virtual day as a back-up plan as necessary.
Moving forward, we would prefer to make more “firm” bookings if your school is comfortable doing so. This will allow us to better assess and coordinate our diary for the coming months.
Cancellation Policy
As the pandemic took hold, we waived all cancellation fees for bookings lost to coronavirus closures. We will need to apply cancellation fees as normal from September for non-coronavirus-related cancellations, but it is our hope to continue to be flexible and reasonable with the virus still present in the UK.
We recognise that we are still in a pandemic — we all face the unknowns of local lockdowns or people becoming ill. We would hope to work cooperatively with schools through this crisis. If a sudden situation made our visit impossible, we would hope to either reschedule a cancelled day, or substitute a virtual day if the required topic is offered.
Health and Safety
For your children’s safety as well as our own, we have made adjustments to our work practice. These include regularly disinfecting our kits, social distancing, and of course not attending a school if the teacher feels sick.
Among the other changes we are making:
- We are limiting our visits to two classes (up to 60 children) to reduce exposure to the virus.
- We are resting kits for 72 hours between visits.
- We are eliminating food and drink from our “feast” afternoons (such as Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Castles, etc.) More emphasis will be placed on performances.
We are happy to provide information that can help your school form your own risk assessment for the day. Feel free to contact us to learn more.
Contacting Us
We remain reachable while schools are closed to help you navigate future bookings. Please feel free to contact us as usual. We will be working from home, therefore please be patient if there is a lag in our response times.
Thank You
We are humbled by the outpouring of support schools have shown us through this crisis. Many of you have reached out with words of encouragement, hoping we would again return to your schools. We are incredibly grateful.
We will continue to update this space as the guidelines for the reopening of schools beome clearer. Thank you for your assistance and understanding.
We hope you, your families and your school communities have stayed safe and continue to do so. We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Updated Tuesday 14th July 2020.