Our Services

School Visits

From September 2020 we are resuming school and college visits with special measures in place. If you need to discuss these with us, in light of your own measures, please feel free to contact us. For your convenience these measures are laid out in the risk assessment below.

We are also taking bookings for next summer.

Online Learning

We can offer online lessons. Please contact our office for details.

Cancellations

If you need to cancel because of factors related to Covid-19, we will not charge our standard £50 cancellation fee.

Risk Assessment

 

Location / Site Schools and colleges in England  
Activity Presenting workshops on Hinduism to pupils, students, and teachers  
Assessment date 20/09/2020  
Objective To minimise the transmission of Covid-19 within the educational setting  
People at risk School staff, pupils, students, HES presenters, and other visitors to the school  

Schools must comply with health and safety law, which requires them to assess risks and put in place proportionate control measures.  The measures HES is taking are so as to be aligned with schools in their efforts to follow government guidance, which states that essential measures must include:

  1. a requirement that people who are ill stay at home
  2. robust hand and respiratory hygiene
  3. enhanced cleaning arrangements
  4. active engagement with NHS Test and Trace
  5. formal consideration of how to reduce contacts and maximise distancing between those in school wherever possible and minimise potential for contamination so far as is reasonably practicable

Government guidance also states, “All elements of the system of controls are essential.  All schools must cover them all, but the way different schools implement some of the requirements will differ based on their individual circumstances.”  Based on this, the system of controls that HES is implementing can be adapted to suit any school’s specific mode of implementation. 

HANDS

The following measures are intended to minimise the chances of contamination from handling objects, in many cases by keeping such handling to one use per person between hand sanitising.

CLEANSING OF HANDS AND EQUIPMENT

1. HES vehicles will be internally cleaned, and sanitised with disinfectant before every school visit.  
2. HES boxes and bags of equipment will be sanitised before entering every school.  
3. HES presenters will wash or sanitise their hands upon entering the school, and frequently throughout the day, at the minimum at the end of every session.  


DISPLAYS

General religious artefacts display

1. The general artefacts display will be scaled back to include a smaller number of non-fabric, non-plastic, hard surface items that can manageably be wiped down with disinfectant by the presenter at the end of each session.  
2. General artefacts will be displayed on one or two tables.  There will be hand sanitiser available for students to use if teachers want them to handle the artefacts.   

Dressing up display

1. The dressing up display will consist of costumes that have been quarantined for a minimum of 48 hours after having been used by only one person.   
2. Under normal circumstances HES gives the opportunity to every child to dress up in Indian costume.   However, because of the quarantining requirements, depending on the number of students we will be seeing in any given week, we may have to limit the number of students we can provide costumes for.  We will discuss this with you during the booking process.  

Dance sticks display

1. We have a very popular activity called stick dancing where each child holds a pair of wooden sticks and dances with a partner.  Schools can choose between having this activity with the sticks included or replacing the sticks with non-contact hand gestures.   
2. If the school chooses to include sticks, we will set up a collection point where each pupil can individually pick up a pair of sanitised sticks with no passing of sticks between pupils.   
3. When sticks are to be returned, we will negotiate with school staff on a procedure for them to be sanitised.  One option, which would encourage good practice, would be for each child to sanitise their own pair of sticks.  

Viewing-only displays

Certain displays will be for students to look at only with no option to handle, and these will be marked clearly as such with signs.  These will be for exhibition and demonstration purposes.

FACE AND SPACE

The following points address use of face masks by HES presenters and social distancing between HES presenters and school staff and students.

Wearing face masks

HES presenters will arrive at the school wearing face masks, and will remove their masks when permission is granted to do so.  We will follow school policy on wearing face masks during the day.

Social distancing

During lessons HES presenters will keep a distance of 2 metres away from all school staff members and students.  At other times we will do likewise wherever possible.

Dressing up

HES staff demonstrate to school staff how to dress up the children.  Under normal circumstances we also work with school staff in dressing the children.  However, under Covid-19 distancing restrictions, we will have to leave this to be done exclusively by the school staff.

Dancing

Our stick dance involves pairs of students facing each other.   As students will generally be in the same bubble, this may be acceptable.  However we will take our lead from school staff on this point. 

Story time and discussion

1. The HES presenter sits on the floor facing the students.  The presenter will sit at a 2-metre distance from the students.  
2. Students sit in rows facing the presenter.  We will follow school social distancing policy for student seating arrangements.  

Using the staff room and other facilities

1. HES staff will follow school policy on sanitising after sitting in staffroom chairs, using staffroom microwave, and all aspects of using the staffroom.  
2. HES staff will only use the school toilets that are designated for visitors.  We suggest that we not use the disabled facilities as these may occasionally be used by pupils.

NHS TEST AND TRACE

If an HES presenter acquires symptoms of Covid-19, they will self-isolate, be tested for the virus, and comply with the NHS Test and Trace programme.