Saturday 10-10-2020 - 17:00

The Courtrooms was the first hall to go into lockdown on Friday 9 October. Since then other blocks have been self-isolating and we're sending love and solidarity to all those students.

What are we lobbying the University for?

We’ve been lobbying for the University to ensure plans for halls lockdown include all the support you need. We've already secured making sure that you can access food, laundry and other essentials, but here's the full list of our demands.

Food, laundry, post 

• The food boxes provided to students in lockdown should cater for all students’ dietary requirements including halal and kosher options - there should be preemptive scoping on this 
• There should be a hot food option for students who live in catered halls so they do not get substandard food boxes 
• These food boxes and the hot meal provision should cover the whole 14 days of quarantine and not just 7 
• The University to arrange laundry provision for students in locked down halls 
• There should be a provision for getting post and physical worksheets to students in lockdown 

Community 

• Resilife to work with Bristol SU to put on a comprehensive programme of community building events for students in halls, ensuring all events are accessible to international students 
• Community Development subgroup to become a lockdown contingency planning group 
• Facilitate a buddy system where students from similar backgrounds can be linked up online between Living Circles. Specifically a Care Leavers and Estranged Students buddy system should be set up 
• Facilitate online spaces where students from specific liberation groups can create a community 

Mental Health Provision 

• Resilife should check in with every Living Circle twice a week. 
• Resilife provision should be moved online with clearly signposted bookable online meetings with RLAs 
• Resilife should actively be checking in with Care Leavers and Estranged Students 

At-Risk students 

• Resilife or Wellbeing Access to conduct an audit to identify the students with disclosed health conditions 
• Resilife to contact these students and offer them a tailored plan either created by Disability Services or a Wellbeing Advisor on how the student will be supported throughout the 14-day lockdown 
• Resilife or another member of staff who has been involved in supporting the student more long-term to check in with the student 1 on 1 at least 3 times each week, with the scope to increase this based on the student’s need 
• The plan for ensuring that students can get their medication needs to be finalised 

Support with rent and financial hardship 

• Rent in halls for the duration of the lockdown should be fully refunded 
• Covid Hardship Fund to be properly publicised to students and more money put in to support students who can no longer work 

Protecting student spaces 

• All students to have access to outdoor space in the event of a lockdown where they can exercise and get fresh air 
• Testing sites should be located without compromising the physical spaces needed to benefit students’ physical and mental health 

We'll be updating you as we secure responses to these demands.

What can you do whilst self-isolating?

We’ll be continuing to run events online, like many of our student groups, so that you are still able to connect to other students and raise your concerns.

We know that the prospect of self-isolation can be daunting - just some of the things that you can get involved with are listed below.
•    browse and join our programme of online Give It a Go events 
•    access our Official online Welcome Fair 2020
•    try out the activities in your SU Welcome Boxes which should have been delivered to you by staff at your residence
•    travel the world (virtually) or brush up your language skills with Global Lounge
•    get active with a range of classes on offer from Sport, Exercise and Health (download the app)
•    take part in virtual events led by the multifaith chaplaincy

It is important in this time that we recognise our shared responsibility to each other and take the necessary precautions to keep each other safe. This means following self-isolation guidance in order to prevent spreading the illness further in our community.

Your Wellbeing

We’re conscious that the current situation is likely to affect your wellbeing so would encourage you to use the university wellbeing access form for support if you need it.

For some help on managing your wellbeing while self-isolating, read through this guidance from Mind. Some top tips include: 

• Keep connecting with student societies online  
• Try and keep active 
• Find ways to relax and be creative 

If you're looking for someone to talk to then Bristol Nightline has reopened. The volunteers are there to listen to you.

We'll be sharing all of our latest covid-19 updates at bristolsu.org.uk/coronavirus