Dear Parents
I hope you have all had a good summer and that children are looking forward to returning to school and seeing their friends.
School times
We will be returning to normal start and finish times from next week with the gate opening at 8.50 am for a 9.00am start and 3.20pm at the end of the day. Class 1, 3 and 4 will enter and exit by the gate onto the big playground. Class 2 will enter and exit by their canopy area as this has proved to be so successful in the last year.
Use of face coverings within the grounds is a matter of personal choice. Please respect the fact that some parents may be more cautious than others, especially when it comes to social distancing.
School Entrance Lobby
We do ask that visitor wear a face covering in the school entrance until told otherwise.
Covid
The guidance has now changed very significantly:
‘Close contacts will now be identified via NHS Test and Trace and education settings will no longer be expected to undertake contact tracing.
As with positive cases in any other setting, NHS Test and Trace will work with the positive case and/or their parent to identify close contacts. Contacts from a school setting will only be traced by NHS Test and Trace where the positive case and/or their parent specifically identifies the individual as being a close contact. This is likely to be a small number of individuals who would be most at risk of contracting COVID-19 due to the nature of the close contact. You may be contacted in exceptional cases to help with identifying close contacts, as currently happens in managing other infectious diseases.
Individuals are not required to self-isolate if they live in the same household as someone with COVID-19, or are a close contact of someone with COVID-19, and any of the following apply:
• they are fully vaccinated
• they are below the age of 18 years and 6 months
• they have taken part in or are currently part of an approved COVID-19 vaccine trial
• they are not able to get vaccinated for medical reasons
Instead, they will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace, informed they have been in close contact with a positive case and advised to take a PCR test. We would encourage all individuals to take a PCR test if advised to do so.
Staff who do not need to isolate, and children and young people aged under 18 years 6 months who usually attend school, and have been identified as a close contact, should continue to attend school as normal. They do not need to wear a face covering within the school, but it is expected and recommended that these are worn when travelling on public or dedicated transport.’
I suspect that this situation may change as infection rates increase this autumn. Whilst I am sure that the risk of serious life threatening illness is now much reduced, I am very concerned about the prospect of large number of staff being off ill and the impact this will have. As usual we will try to deal with things in a calm common-sense way.
By far the biggest thing that you can do to help is to keep doing lateral flow tests and to treat colds and sniffles with caution and test if you feel it’s appropriate.
We are going to have to get back to having children in school with colds, and there will no doubt be a lot of general illness this autumn, so keeping hygiene routines at home and school will be really important. It goes without saying that children who have sickness and diarrhoea must not return until 48 hours has lapsed since the last instance of illness (not since the start of the illness).
What does the guidance mean in real terms for the school?
There will be times when we will have children in school who have parents or siblings who have tested positive for Covid and are isolating at home; the government expects these children to be in school if they have clear tests themselves.
If staff or children become ill, the class will not go home, it may be that one or two really close contacts may be asked to isolate.
Summer Improvements
You will notice that we have had a lot of work carried out over the summer. Class 4 has been re roofed, more equipment has been delivered to the early years area. Mrs Osborne and her team have made further progress in the new garden laying out paving; its going to be a lovely resource once finished. Mr Leggett has done a fantastic job giving the school a very comprehensive deep clean. He has done a fantastic job restoring the hall floor; it's starting to shine like it did years ago. Special thanks to Mrs Leggett who came and helped too.
There is still work to complete as it was discovered that the chimneys were in serious need of TLC too.
I look forward to seeing everyone next week, enjoy the final days of the holiday.