Covid 19 Communication

Dear Parents,

Firstly, we hope you are safe and well and able to enjoy some sunshine and are keeping up your English. We miss our little KidooKids very much and really hope to see them soon.

We appreciate this is a difficult time and hope that the holiday is giving you some time to relax a little.

We want to thank you for your patience in this unprecedented time and thought you would appreciate having an update so that you can see what we have been putting into place and what the team are doing to KidooLand both alive and a safe environment for your children and our staff at this difficult time.

Make yourself a coffee and please then WHY we at KidooLand are continuing to work and did not simply close the doors. The financial challenges that are threatening us and the teachers. HOW we see the future being - our plans for the end of confinement. WHAT you can be doing to help your child and KidooLand right now.

HERE ARE THE 4 STEPS YOU CAN TAKE RIGHT NOW TO HELP

AND SUPPORT YOUR CHILD AND THEIR LITTLE ENGLISH SCHOOL

1. FROM 27th APRIL JOIN YOUR MON-FRI DAILY DOSES* CLASSES and complete THINKIFIC RESOURCES (Current members should see your emails)

2. REGISTER FOR A HOLIDAY PROGRAMME (APRIL ONLINE /SUMMER)

3. RESERVE YOUR PLACE FOR SEPTEMBER NOW & BENEFIT FROM 2019 PRICING

4. TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND SHARE OUR SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS LINK

In joining us online, not only are you helping your child continue their learning, but you also help to keep the KidooLand team employed and KidooLand alive. For this, we all thank you!

We finish by saying we miss our contact with you at the doors of KidooLands ..If you have any suggestions then the best way to contact us is first by email. Please give your mobile phone number and some options on when is a good time for us to call you back. We will then fit this in around our own home commitments. We are also working from home and will call you from our personal numbers so this may be a masked number.

Stay home, stay safe and enjoy the holidays!

Regards

Many thanks

Antonia Beauvoisin Brown

REMINDER FROM MONDAY 27th April….DAILY DOSES

- The Daily Doses online interactive classes and online library will continue again for all our Wednesday and Saturday students and our older Playgroup students and Adult classes from Monday 27th April. Emails with the secure class links will be sent out on the weekend of 25/26 April. If you have not received your email by 8pm on Sunday 26th April, please contact us:

- Toddler Time will be our Facebook Live focus with Sian after the holidays – ideas to keep the 1-3 year olds amused from your own home. Mon-Friday from 9a.m.

WHY ARE WE CONTINUING TO WORK?

Since Monday 16th March, KidooLand has been online for our school aged children and a small number of our younger members.

Monday-Friday, for the last 4 weeks the English teaching team met with small groups of children where we could chat and learn together. We invested in lots of technology to make these as interactive as possible and also to provide a library of resources for you to work on in your own time 24/7,

The team have had a steep learning curve, given the urgency of the crisis and have risen to the challenge well. We have tried to incorporate your suggestions where possible here is what you had to say:

We have provided various online options to keep children’s English going during term time:

• Start your day the KidooWay with Sian’s daily Facebook Live these are available on replay.

• Daily Doses (live English classes for school kids)

• Adult conversation classes

• Toddler Parents teacher class for ideas on home schooling

• Library resources, Facebook posts & Live replay at the weekend if you really can’t join us daily. We hope you encourage your kids to review these over the Spring break .

Some of you may wonder why we didn’t just stop work all together. Why we don’t just stop payments and offer “catch up later”. We understand this question and so thought it would be good to answer as best we can.

Education - Continuity is essential in language learning.

• At the time the confinement began, we had no idea (and still don’t) how long the confinement will last and a break of 2-5 months (if confinement lasted until September for example) would have a hugely negative impact on the children’s English; an extended delay in their learning could be like starting all over again.

• The importance of logging on regularly has already shown in many of our students a marked improvement in their English and helps us connect directly with you to understand any language issues you may be having

• We can help you advance your English even through this crisis.

• Through technology we have been able to use and provide additional resources and library tools so that crisis or not, your child’s English education can continue and they have learnt new skills. If anything, this crisis has shown the team how to adapt to the impersonal and unfriendly online world and make it a really welcoming and positive learning environment for children.

• In summary, for your child’s well-being and English improvement we are currently encouraging you to meet with us so there is not an interruption in their learning process.

Uncertain time periods – this is a great plan B

• We do not know how long this may be for. There may well be on then off confinement for the next year, at this point nothing is certain. Therefore we need to have a good solid backup learning solution. KidooLand Online is that. Providing continuity and language learning, no matter what happens in the outside world; your child will appreciate that security.

Post confinement

• We don’t want parents to feel post confinement that they need to make a stressful decision or an obligation to return to collective life especially as we don’t even know what this is going to look like. So we may well be in a position to continue to offer an online alternative for those people or for example those in high risk situations. This is to be confirmed but the online option gives us choices and solutions.

Support for our Team members

- One could argue that our civic duty is to carry on working where we can because the economy needs it. Where we can continue to safely keep people working, we need to do so to lessen the pressure on the economy.

- The Kidoo team need to work to be able to pay their own bills because there aren’t government aides for everyone.

- Cutting the workforce to 0 could mean that we would permanently lose the teachers as they may go and find other work that is available to them and then not be there for us when we re open.

- Many of our major operating costs like rents will stay the same whether we are physically present in KidooLand or not. When we don’t work and earn money to pay these fixed costs, your Little English school would risk bankruptcy. This also would have a financial impact on employees who would lose indemnities.

- In the best of times educational finances are finely managed. It is a labour intensive business based on expertise of staff and also needs premises. So continuing online, supports your child’s teacher and your child for the future.

In summary, the only way that we can see a viable future for KidooLand to continue come the re-opening is:

a) to carry on now, providing our services online now for all our current clients

b) to continue paying as many of those fixed costs right now. Deferring all costs will lead to huge financial issues later.

For those that are currently registered in programmes where monthly payments are still due: We do recognise that this unprecedented situation can mean for a small minority that despite your best intentions you may no longer be financially able to continue paying for your place. We are here to help individuals in serious financial difficulty and recommend you contact us as soon as possible to discuss. reservation@kidooland.com

If we do not hear from you then we will assume that you continue to support us and will be joining us where possible online until we get to physically see each other again.

ADDITIONAL WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD AND KIDOOLAND ARE

THE APRIL HOLIDAYS

In April, we launched our fun interactive iSTAGES Vacances, a 2H innovative programme of English education, adapted for online learning.

This is not the equivalent to sitting for 2 hours to watch a film. Instead, a small group of children meet and connect with their teachers in a space where children and teachers can see and hear each other .. it’s the future 

The 2H iSTAGE programme is divided into 4 x 30-minute fun segments, each led by a different teacher. This creates energy and fun, dynamics and variety.

The children stay connected to one “iSTAGE classroom” and the teachers join in turn to run activities like singing, dancing, exploring, discussing and of course, it’s 100% in English!

The teaching team review the sessions daily to ensure that they constantly strive to improve quality and engagement levels. They were really happy to read this review…

"This video course is a really good idea. What worked well was guessing the name of each fruit and vegetable when Nicola showed them on the screen. Songs and dancing too. Thank you anyway " "Thank you Antonia and the whole KidooLand team for what you put in place. It’s great… It’s really great these interactive courses ”

SEPTEMBER

Thank you to all those currently reserving their September places. Each one makes us smile.

We have decided to keep the 2019 prices for the duration of the confinement. Your solidarity in ensuring a future for KidooLand, is appreciated by the team and also future generations of KidooLand students. Thank you .

THE FUTURE - WE ARE PLANNING FOR OUR RE-OPENING!

Firstly, we are trying to visualise the return to “normality”. We are discussing and researching as a team what this may look like for KidooLand:

• What legal rules, guidelines and recommendations will be put in place over the next 4-6 weeks.

We are not only looking at France’s rules and guidelines but also to other countries like Singapore, Finland, Denmark and Germany to see what is working and what rules and guidelines they also implement over the coming weeks and months. By taking inspiration from other countries, we can then go above and beyond French legal requirements so that when KidooLand reopens, it does so in the best possible conditions for staff and children alike.

• Reviewing KidooLand’s existing best practices and procedures

KidooLand was already using frontal thermometers, had increased cleaning regimes and encouraged more frequent hand washing among the children prior to confinement and these practices would be maintained upon reopening. Soap and hand gel has never been a problem for us.

We are also discussing the feasibility of other policies, such as using separate entrances for the Annexe & Loft in Vallauris to reduce numbers in the main entrance at peak times.

• Sharing with you Prior to re-opening, we will inform you of all the policies that we will put in place to safeguard your children and our staff. We will of course evaluate and review these policies constantly once we have re-opened to ensure that children are welcomed in the safest possible conditions.

• The Summer Camps At this point, we are anticipating being able to work this summer as planned. I suggest you look at booking your stages vacances places with a deposit if you’ve not yet reserved. If the confinement ends by July, then the stages will go ahead using all the safety protocols that will, by then, have been defined. If confinement is maintained, then we will offer alternatives such as returning the deposit as is, switching to our online programmes (pro rata and with a bonus) or carried forward to later stages (again with a bonus)

We really do look forward to re-opening KidooLand and seeing you all again as soon as possible, but in the right way and in the best possible conditions. The management team will decide together when to re-open KidooLand based on government rules and guidelines and also based on our own professional opinion, research and experience.

In the meantime, given the prolonged length of this confinement, I suggest you get ready to join us online after the holidays for your Daily Doses of English (for our registered school age children only) if you haven’t already done so.

Please be aware that even if schools do re-start on 11th May, KidooLand may not open immediately.

We do, however, promise to always keep communications open with you and to keep you fully informed on our decisions and thought processes over the coming weeks and months.

In joining us online, you also help to keep the KidooLand team employed and KidooLand alive. For this, we all thank you!

Regards

Antonia Beauvoisin Brown and the whole KidooTeam