Hooray! The Bath Flower School is starting up again. September the 8th will be our first day back of teaching. We can't wait to get back to some sort of (new!) normal and to what we do best - Teaching!
What a crazy strange time this has been for all of us. No school for children, no work for lots of us, no contact with other people, isolation, change, uncertainty and confusion, just some of the ways this terrible pandemic has impacted on our lives.
And now that shops, businesses, restaurants, public transport have started to run and open, there is yet more adjustment and re-evaluating. It is unsettling to say the least.
The frustration we felt back in March when we had to stop work and go into lock down after only just starting the business in the previous November was immense. We had just started to get into our flow and were gaining momentum as a business. The week after completing our first Weddings! course (which was a great success) we shut up shop and retreated home as did the rest of the country. All our plans on hold, classes cancelled, refunds given, time to stay safe at home.
We know that for lots of people this has been a time to reflect, re-evaluate and for some, change direction. For some of us our priorities have changed, things we thought were important we now realise are not. For us at the flower school it has been a chance to really think about our school and our classes, what we offer and how we deliver them.
So…After this period of reflection, our ethos very much remains the same. In short, we really do care about our students! We want to give them the best possible learning experience we can.
These are the principles that help us achieve that:
By providing courses which are up to date, have in depth content, and are inline with (if not better than) the current floristry courses within the industry.
By being generous and informative with our knowledge and experience, sharing with our students as much as we possibly can
By overwhelming our students with the quality, quantity and variety of the flowers that we use and by always using British and local flowers when we can.
By providing our students with a relaxed learning environment through our kind and caring approach.
By ensuring that each students leaves knowing that they belong to our wider flower community.
By nurturing and supporting our students we give them the opportunity to discover and realise their creativity.
By advocating individuality and teaching students how to make informed creative decisions in order to develop their own floristry style.
We want all of our students to leave the flower school feeling accomplished, confident and happy!
School and COVID…
When returning in September - our students safety is paramount. We want our students to be able to come and learn with us knowing that we have taken all the correct and necessary measures in order to minimise any potential risk.
We will be following all the government guidelines regarding health and safety, plus some extra ones of our own, to make sure we keep everyone safe, whilst still making it a happy, comfortable, relaxed place to learn and be with other people.
All our courses commencing in September and beyond will adhere to the current social distancing rules. Heightened cleaning and hygiene measures are in place and our facilities will be adapted in order to meet government guidelines.
We are very lucky that Museum of Bath at Work (where our school resides) is a huge airy building with a high ceiling, wide staircases and plenty of room for our students to stay safe distances away from each other. We have exclusive use of the top floor of the building and we are in control of who comes in and out of our space.
Of course between now and September guidance may change, be updated or become more relaxed but we will continue to monitor and ensure that guidelines are in place for our reopening.
Returning back to school…
With a jam packed calendar for the remaining of 2020, we are super excited to be welcoming all of our new (and returning students) back to the flower school. September is an great month as there is still an abundance of British flowers… dahlias, hellebore, stocks, zinnias to name a few. We will be getting our flower orders in with our AMAZING local growers and can guarantee that the school will be filled with the best flowers we can get our hands on - WE REALLY CAN’T WAIT!!!