Supporting Queen Anne's Students through Quarantine

With the prospect of the Covid pandemic restricting international travel and quarantine rules being put in place for travellers, Queen Anne’s School implemented a quarantine facility in August 2020.  For those girls who could not return, we continued to provide the excellent remote learning programme that they had run through the Trinity Term.

Students from countries required to quarantine on arrival in the UK were collected from the airport by our trusted drivers, Geoff Palmer and Gavin Hawkes and transported to school on the school minibuses, allowing space for social distancing and following all Covid safe procedures.

Upon arrival at Queen Anne's girls were escorted to Holmes House, where they had separate bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms.  Staff delivered all meals to the door of each room and carried out wellbeing checks throughout the day, along with many online games and activities to keep boredom at bay.  Outside exercise and fresh air time was also organised.

When school returned in March in 2021, a number of our students were unable to travel due to lack of flight availability and they continued their education via the remote learning provided by the school. The staff and students onsite have been making great efforts to include the remote learning students in their activities, from assemblies to clubs and lessons. 

During the Easter Holidays our quarantine programme was run by staff from UKLC who had provided the care for the girls who stayed at school for the 2020 October half-term break. The escorted transport team was joined by Bruce Sarjent from QAS Events Team and Chloe Watterson, QAS Lacrosse Coach.  The team did an amazing job in the face of long delays at the airport and some very late nights!

The new Covid PCR testing regime for international arrivals was successfully implemented by UKLC and the Holmes House staff and despite some delays, all the girls recorded negative results and are all back in the classroom enjoying face to face learning.  The girls were provided with an excellent standard of care, with the UKLC staff being in constant contact with the girls via Whatsapp and delicious meals provided by Steve Beaumont and his catering team.