Anne Andrews explained that this item was put on the agenda to understand the context that schools would be going back to. She was interested to find out from local faith leaders the impact Covid-19 had on them.

Barbara Meaney explained from a Catholic point of view, she had spoken to the Parish Priest in Windsor and they had been dealing with a number of funerals, which had been very stressful. A number of parents had also asked what support could be given to children, especially as bereavement charities had limited staff with many on furlough.

Deborah Firth said that they had about half of their children back in school and that they would hopefully get back on track in September. There was some good information on wellbeing available on the NHS website.

Louise Ceska said that her community had not suffered many bereavements and had been offering blended learning to help children, along with sending home things that would help with wellbeing.

Richard Rhodes said that at his school, they had shared any wellbeing resources they had received with the school community. He believed that there was a lot of anxiety for families, for example getting free vouchers out to vulnerable pupils. The help received from the Early Help Hub had been superb.

Clare Theobalds said that they had been reaching out to students and wellbeing interviews had been conducted with tutor groups. It had been a tricky time for staff too and staff had really stepped up to the mark, there was a real sense of community and support.

Ila Gangotra explained that there had been one death in the Hindu community, but it was not Covid related. They had been holding Zoom services and had seen an increase in the number of people who were engaging and joining in with their activities.

Ravinder Singh said that anyone was welcome at the Gurdwara if they needed any help or support. They had been holding shorter Sunday services, maintain social distancing and being shorter than they usually would. The Gurdwara had been particularly active in helping to deliver food packages to the local community.

Councillor Stimson said that a number of members of her church had been shielding in recent months. Communion had been held on Zoom, which had been a really good way to reach people who were on their own. It would be interesting to see what lessons could be learned going forward, and holding services on Zoom had been a strange but good experience so far.

Sally Lynch gave an update from the Anglican perspective. Contact had been regularly maintained with the clergy and it had been impressive how some of the older members were able to access services online. There had been a number of weddings and baptisms postponed due to the crisis, and a number of people were now reconsidering what they wanted from a wedding. It had been interesting to find out what was important, with for some finding the actual building to be the most important aspect.

Hilary Harris said that the synagogue already had live streaming in place and this had continued over the past few months. The religious school had gone online to continue engaging with children and more people had got involved as a result.

Anthony Lewis said that the Humanist Society usually had social gatherings, but due to Covid the programme had been delayed by six months. If there was still issues to be meeting in person in September, they would look to use Zoom for their events.

Chris Sayers said that the Buddhist community had embraced Zoom in their activities. They had also used webinars for lectures with good attendance and had noticed that more people were joining in online than they would usually get in person.

Margaret Dudley explained that in her church, they had started using Zoom for Palm Sunday which gained an attendance between 300-350 people. There had been few bereavements in the community and they had been supporting families who were unable to attend funerals. ‘Messy Church’ had also been working well on Zoom, but in some cases it had been difficult to support those that had limited online access.

Father Darcy Chesterfield-Terry said that services had been shown on Facebook and YouTube, with music produced so that members could sing along at home. He had noticed that people were watching the service after it had happened, effectively making it available on demand. Viewing figures had been impressive, with over 400 individual unique users active in the last 28 days on YouTube. It had been an exciting experience but the challenge now was live streaming services from the church, and they had been looking at ways to reopen for public worship too.

Karen Butler explained that in her church, they had been holding Zoom services up to three times on a Sunday. She was particularly anxious about the elderly with some being able to phone in to hear the service. It was hoped they would be able to physically get back into the church soon, but for the foreseeable future services would continue to be held online.

The Chairman shared his own experience, saying that for the Bahá?í community the lockdown seemed to have imposed a new energy, with many different people joining in activities and services online.

At the end of the item, the Chairman left the meeting due to another commitment and the Vice Chairman took over as chair.