Latest Government COVID Advice for parents (24.2.2022)

24.2.2022

Dear Parents,
As you will be aware, this week the Government published their updated guidance around the changes they are making to the law for COVID. I’ve tried to outline the changes and expected changes for the coming week or so. As you’ll imagine, the guidance is not as clear as we would hope, and there are still many questions so thank you in advance for your understanding and support – as always.

Masks
Whilst these are no longer required, staff will continue to wear during the meet and greet for the next few weeks and we would like to encourage parents to as well but understand if you prefer not to.

Testing
Primary age children have only been recommended to test when there is a positive case in their class or if parents needed/chose to. We have always followed this advice, and while ever tests are freely available, we will continue to recommend this approach to protect children, staff and wider families linked to our school.

Isolation
From today (24th February), the law changes and it is no longer a legal obligation to isolate. Instead, everyone should follow the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) advice. As we understand it, the UKHSA advice remains to isolate for five full days if an individual is showing symptoms. They should then have two negative tests before ending isolation after day 5 (testing on day 5 and day 6). There is therefore no expected change in the advice, just to the law enforcing that advice.

For schools, this places COVID on the same level as the current policy in place for when children have other infectious or potentially infectious illnesses – such as vomiting/diarrhoea. These require children to be clear of symptoms for a fixed period of time before returning to school (for example, for vomiting/diarrhoea this is 48 hours clear). For the time being, we will not change our existing procedure for children with COVID symptoms (high temperature, new continuous cough, change of taste/smell) or testing positive to remain at home for five full days. This is to ensure the continued safety of other pupils, staff, and their families.

If your child has no symptoms, but tests positive on a Lateral Flow test, we recommend they remain off school for five full days as well. Although your child may be symptom free, others might not be so lucky and continued attendance while knowingly positive poses a significant risk to others. We would hope families would make the right choice and keep their child off school if they test positive. Thank you.

 We will also continue to provide remote learning for COVID absence periods, as we have done.

As the guidance is made clearer, we will update our policy to match. Thank you for your understanding and patience.


What is not changing
We will continue to ventilate all spaces used by children and staff in school. Hygiene measures (hand washing and cleaning routines) will also remain in place. We will continue to monitor and report cases as required and offer advice for families with positive cases.

I appreciate that the current changes may bring more questions than answers. Some families will be pleased to see the changes, while others will be extremely worried about what it means for them. As always, we will take a balanced approach, that aims to enable children to have all the opportunities we can provide, while keeping them as safe as we can.

I am proud of the way our school community, children, staff and parents - but particularly the children – have navigated the difficulties and challenges of the last two years, and I’m confident that whatever comes next, we will continue to show our school values in all we do to get through it all together.

Thank you for your understanding and support. As ever, if you have any specific concerns, please do get in touch

Kindest regards

Catherine Cresswell

Head Teacher