A FAMILY support worker at a Derby special school has been hailed a ‘lockdown hero’ for going ‘above and beyond’ to help pupils during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Louise Pipes, who works at St Giles School, in Hampshire Road, has been officially recognised by Teaching Personnel; a UK organisation which recently launched a national campaign to identify the unsung heroes who have helped to keep schools functioning over the last few months.
A survey held by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) revealed that, during lockdown, teaching assistants made home visits to pupils to deliver school meals, made check-in calls and assisted with cleaning duties to maintain a safe learning environment for pupils.
Thomas Few, lead teacher at St Giles and the person who nominated Louise, said: “We’re always proud of our staff at St Giles and, over the past few months, they have gone above and beyond to ensure that our pupils are safe and happy during what has been an unprecedented time.
“Leaders and staff are committed to doing what works best for families at St Giles and we will continue to be creative about how best to keep our door ‘open’.
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“Measure we have put in place since the lockdown in March include setting up a dedicated mobile number for the school’s NHS nurse and a link-up to translators, so that they can support families where English isn’t their first language and providing ongoing learning resource packs.
“Staff have been working around the clock lately – and they even cut short their summer holiday – to make sure that St Giles can continue to provide a safe and supportive environment for our pupils.
“We had members of staff doing supermarket and medication runs to help children and their families who, especially in the early days of lockdown, were unable to find essentials or, for other reasons, haven’t been able to access a supermarket.
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Fiona Hallam, Senior Lead Practitioner, who works closely with Louise, helped with the nomination for Louise and was able to share all of the fantastic work the Louise has done over the past few month.
Fiona shared, “Louise was nominated for playing a key role in this. She’s kind, hard-working and thoroughly deserves the recognition. Louise takes great care in getting to know each child as an individual and always works in their best interests.”
During the lockdown months, teaching assistants played a crucial role in helping to bridge the education gap and were key in supporting teaching staff by keeping morale high. They also had the difficult job of explaining to children why they must socially distance from their classmates.
They have an important role to play post-lockdown, too, ensuring the emotional wellbeing of both teachers and pupils and helping deliver the recovery curriculum put in place by most schools.
ENDS
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