SchoolPro TLC Coronavirus Update

To our SchoolPro TLC family:

We’ve been thinking a lot about you lately – our schools and your wider communities. Whilst we are striving to run our operations largely as normal, your health and safety are our top priorities and at the heart of every decision we make. Last week, it was still our intention to continue with onsite visits wherever practical. However, we believe it’s critical to do our part to help reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and we are now being advised to take as much of our work as possible online, including meetings and training. Therefore, following the latest guidance, we will not be conducting school visits until at least the 27th April.

In light of this, here are some of the steps we are taking to ensure you still receive the best possible support:

• We are working tirelessly to make sure that our services are available and remain available.
• In doing so, we are available for online video conferencing and have set up this facility through Microsoft Teams.
• We have provided you with information regarding implementing safe remote learning (see our previous blog post on Safe Remote Learning).
• We have provided you with information about keeping information secure in the event of school closure (see our March Newsletter on this blog).
• We are diligently following guidance and best practice from the government, DfE and NHS.
• We are available to answer any questions or queries that you may have.

If you would like any pre-arranged meetings to go ahead online, please contact us and instructions will be sent for joining the specified meeting slot to anyone invited to attend. This also applies if you wish to arrange a new meeting with your allocated DPO.

Alternatively, we are happy to postpone pre-arranged meetings and training to allow the school to focus on the pupils, staff and community at this anxious time.

We will obviously remain available to support in our role as DPO. We will continue to work for you writing Data Privacy Impact Assessments, carrying out compliance checks, dealing with reported breaches, supporting SAR requests, and offering staff training sessions online.

We are also happy, within our own capacity, to offer other support to remove pressure on your staff. We have, amongst other things, been:

• assisting in Business Continuity Planning;
• training on Microsoft Teams;
• producing online lesson guidelines for staff and students.

Please feel free to ask if you think we can help.

In the meantime, we will assume that any pre-arranged meetings and training booked to take place in March or April will be postponed unless we receive a reply to request a move to an online format. We will assess the situation on an ongoing basis and communicate soon regarding arrangements in May, June and beyond, and if the short-term situation changes further.

While the environment around us is uncertain, we take comfort in the fact that we have taken all reasonable precautions to limit the spread of COVID-19 and appreciate our compassionate and loyal community of schools. We apologise that our message has had to change since we communicated with you last week but we are having to respond to a rapidly changing and evolving situation, as you all are as well. We stand ready to serve, and hope that our website, data protection portal and communication channels can be a source of support, inspiration and solution for you – because sometimes we all need a break from the news.

We will be keeping our blog updated (https://schoolpro.uk/schoolpro-tlc-blog.html) with any information as we get it as well as using email and other communication channels as required.

Thank you for being a part of the SchoolPro TLC family.

Stay safe and healthy,

Ian, Rich and Ben