I hope you have had a good first week of term and have enjoyed discovering everything our campus has to offer and the wide range of activities that you can get involved with. I’ve enjoyed meeting many of you over the past week and it’s so lovely to see campus busy and vibrant again.
As your timetabled teaching begins this week, I wanted to take the opportunity to remind you of the importance of playing your part to help protect you, and everyone on campus. Although legal Covid-19 Government restrictions have been lifted, the virus has not gone away. Therefore many of the effective measures that we have had in place over the past 18 months remain in place across campus, because the health and safety of our College community will always be a top priority.
These measures include 1m social distancing when our face-to-face teaching is being delivered, strongly encouraging all students and staff to take part in twice-weekly lateral flow testing, wearing of a face covering when moving around indoors, and for all students to get fully vaccinated.
Lateral flow testing identifies those who are asymptomatic. By taking part in twice-weekly testing, you will be reducing the risk of unknowingly spreading the virus to those around you. You can either test via our asymptomatic testing site located at The Hub or by ordering a home test kit from
the NHS. As a thank you for taking part in testing, until 15 October, you can earn rewards for yourself, as well as supporting our SU clubs and societies. More information about testing and our testing rewards can be found on
the student intranet.
In addition, everyone on campus is asked to wear a face covering when moving around inside any of our buildings. This includes even when you are moving around briefly, for example walking into a catering outlet, the Library or to a classroom, removing your face covering indoors only when you’ve sat down.
More information about these measures and how you can play your part in keeping yourself and everyone around you safe, can be found on
the student intranet. In addition, next week Playing Your Part Ambassadors will be located outside our main lecture theatres across campus, giving out lateral flow testing kits and face coverings, as well as providing guidance on how to safely enter and exit our teaching spaces and how to follow the one-way and queuing systems in place within academic buildings.
The start of the academic year is an exciting time for everyone and I really hope that your first week of teaching goes well.
Professor Paul Layzell
Principal