Covid-19

The goal is to reduce the virus from spreading: protecting yourself as well as others. 

If you are showing no symptoms and have not been in contact with anyone with the virus, you are safe to come to college, go shopping and socialise in small groups outside your home. 

If you are contacted by Track and Trace, or someone has told you that they have tested positive for covid-19 and you have spent close contact with them recently, you must tell college as soon as possible. You could ring our main number 01539 817000, or email your tutor. 

Masks

In College it is required that everyone wears a face covering in the ‘mixing areas’ such as the corridors, cafe and toilets. You are welcome to remove your mask when you have reached the classroom that you have your lessons in. Please socially distance with staff and those not in your bubble.

Hygiene

Please hand sanitise before entering the building and when leaving. Please also wash your hands with soap and water after every trip to the toilet and before and after consuming food and drink. It is more likely that you would contract the virus at these times. 

Please refer to the Student Handbook for more info. 

Online Safety 

The covid pandemic has increased our online activity. It’s important to stay safe and protect your identity. New invasive tracking and scams are emerging all the time and it’s important to stay up to date with protecting yourself. 

Safer Internet 

Cumbria Police 

Looking after the health of your body has never been as important.

Ensuring you are drinking enough water is really important (around 2 litres a day on average). It might be nice to add some juice, cordial or herbal teas that will make drinking more enjoyable. 

Ensuring you are eating a healthy balanced diet is important too. Vitamin C and zinc help your immune system to fight infection, eating food high in these may help you stay healthier. Some people may need to consider if supplements would useful during this time?

Consider stocking up on emergency supplies of paracetamol and cold and flu remedies.

Smoking also increases your risk of the virus harming your body more. Advice on quitting smoking can be found here. 

Your mental and emotional wellbeing may also be affected during this time, check out the mental and emotional wellbeing pages or there is help available here:

NHS Covid-19 help 

Get Self Help 

The government advises to stay active as this improves your overall health and wellbeing. Exercise also reduces stress in addition to helping improve sleep quality. 

It will be discouraged for you to walk around college without a purpose (visiting the cafe, toilets or classrooms) due to covid-19 and therefore building healthy habits into your daily routine is a more reliable way to increase activity. As an example try walking to college or getting off the bus early, perhaps try an evening run before your meal?

-Walking or cycling to college

-Watching youtube fitness tutorials (from trusted sources)

-Subscribe to local fitness groups who may be running outdoor groups such as ‘boot camps’. 

Thank goodness for social media and the internet!

Most young people have found it a relief to be able to chat to their friends over social media or video call. 

It’s now possible to meet up in small groups from different households outdoors. Whilst the weather is good, that is great! But as winter approaches it may be harder to find ways to stay connected. 

It might be time to reach out and join some local groups if you are feeling lonely.

If you are struggling, speak to your course tutor who may be able to help. 

Follow @kendalwellbeing or @kendalcollege on Instagram 

Some tips on managing relationships during Covid-19

Struggling with life at home? 

In the event that a person in ‘your bubblet’ has tested positive for covid you will be asked to isolate at home and to learn via MS Teams. If this will be difficult for you, please speak to your tutor. 

Working from home rather than in college will be quite different for most students. There are simple things that will help keep you on top of your learning:

• A tidy work space or desk, ideally somewhere quiet and free from distraction. 
• Keep your phone and other gadgets out of reach whilst trying to concentrate. 
• Keeping a timetable of when you plan to work, eat, exercise and rest.
• Staying in contact with your tutor via email or Microsoft Teams.
• Stay in contact with people on your course, work together to solve problems if you can. 
• Discuss with people you live with about when you will be free to socialise with them and when you expect them to leave you to study. 
• Reward yourself when you have done a successful day of working from home.