Autumn and Winter is that time of year where we see coughs, colds, snotty noses and lost voices as the seasons starts to seep in with the most recent germs - especially now that the children are back together again.
We are all at a point where we want a semblance of normality and have totally had enough of Covid-19 however, the current message continues to be very clear.
If your child, or anyone in the household displays any one of the three main COVID-19 symptoms
even if they are mild, they must get a PCR test.
If your child tests positive on a LFT we would recommend a PCR test.
To protect you, your families, my staff team and our community and to mitigate any further spread of the virus, here are the steps we have in our most recent Covid Risk Assessment (based on PHE and DFE guidance) and the process we need to have in place to keep school as Covid free as we can.
PCR Test Results
You may be required to contact the Station PTC.
Can I give my child a Lateral Flow Test?
Yes, as there is a rise in cases amongst school aged children, it is now advised to test your children regularly following the instructions in the test kit pack.
As per the current Government guidance, children can return to school should they have two consecutive negative LFTs on both Day 5 and Day 6 or if day 5 is still positive - even if it is a faint line - Day 6 and 7, Day 7 and 8 and so on. The guidance is very clear that the date of the initial PCR/LFT is classed as Day 0 and that there must be at least 24 hours between the two consecutive negative tests. Please send the results into school if they are negative.
Why do siblings go home if one child has symptoms and why does the decision on this change?
We send siblings home so that we can stop any potential outbreak across school and inconvenience parents further, in the worst-case scenario, by having to close a class because we do not have enough adults to safely keep a class open. Some schools have had to do this due to the number of both children and staff with Covid and we are trying to avoid this, where we can, with the measures we have in place on our Risk Assessment.
The decision around sending siblings home is based on our weekly call with the Local Authority which currently indicates that cases in primary schools are increasing - in both staff and pupils. This element may change again if cases significantly drop and may become a flexible part of our Covid Risk Assessment.
Thank you for your understanding with this element - it is showing to stop any spread and helping with keeping classes open and children in school.
Attendance marks and Home Learning
If your child is awaiting a test or is off isolating due to a positive case in the house, they will be marked with an 'X' in the register. This does not affect their attendance score and also triggers our legal requirement to provide work via google classrooms.
If your child 's test result returns as a positive, the register will be marked with an 'I' to show that they are ill. Work is not provided in this situation as we do not expect children who are off with any illness to be doing work just focusing on recovering as we would for any other illness.
If your child is asymptomatic and they would like something to do to support their learning whilst they are off, activities can be accessed via the online learning platforms that school subscribes to. The passwords for these can be found in your child's reading record. In addition to this, the class topic web and knowledge organiser will also give ideas on how to support learning that is taking place in class. These will have been sent home, however copies can also be found on the class web page.
Enhanced Protective Measures in School
From a school perspective, our enhanced protective measures in school will continue to be put in place and this has been updated based on the Government advice to schools and what works for us to keep the virus at bay.
Our current measures include:
Protective Measures
Measures that we have in place across the school to mitigate the speed of the COVID-19 Virus are: