Increase in COVID Measures after Half-Term

Dear parents and carers,

You will be aware from the Prime Minister’s announcement on Wednesday evening that Covid rates across the country are rising. This is particularly the case in the South West of England, where there has been a rapid rise in recent weeks.

As a result, when we return to school on Monday 1^st November, after the break, our local Director of Public Health has requested that all schools increase measures to curb the spread of infection.

What we will be doing as a school 

1. We will be keeping classes separate inside, where practically possible, for at least two weeks after the half term break.
2. Assemblies will be conducted online.
3. We will continue to enhance our cleaning routines.
4. We will keep spaces well ventilated; this may mean that your child will be invited to wear their coat indoors.
5. We will continue to support the wider vaccination programme, currently aimed at older students and adults, including any further roll-out of the booster programme. We will share any information that is passed to us about how those vaccination programmes are being accessed and how people may access this service.

What we need our families to do in the first instance; 

1.  Please ensure that your child stays at home if they are unwell with Covid symptoms. They must continue to stay at home until 24 hours after the fever passes. They should do so even if they have tested negative for Covid 19.  
2. If someone in your household tests positive, your child may still come to school until their own PCR test result comes through.
3. Public Health England are advising household siblings of confirmed cases to take a daily Lateral Flow test (LFD) whilst awaiting a PCR test result and continue to attend school, unless the test is positive.

Thank you for your considerable support throughout this period, and for your flexibility in working with these new, revised arrangements.

We will be sure to contact you with any other changes as we are asked to make them in the interests of public health.

As a reminder, the cardinal symptoms of Covid are:

• a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
• a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

If you have any of these symptoms, get a PCR test (test that is sent to a lab) to check if you have coronavirus and stay at home until you get your result, even if the symptoms are mild.

Colds and other non-Covid symptoms are circulating but in the first instance cardinal symptoms should be treated as possible COVID and trigger isolation and testing as outlined above.

Yours faithfully

Samantha Hodder

Principal