Coronavirus update

Dear parents and carers,

Yesterday the government introduced further measures to delay the spread of the virus.

Please find below the precautionary measures we are taking to support the government strategy. These will take effect from tomorrow; 18th March.

We will cancel:

  • Mother’s Day liturgies on Thursday 19th March (as notified yesterday)
  • The Year 3 and 4 Easter Concert on Wednesday 1st April (as notified yesterday)
  • All after school sports and clubs except The Funbox
  • Year 4 swimming on Wednesday afternoons
  • All community use of the school premises
  • Year 9 parents’ evening, scheduled for Thursday 2nd April

Year 11 revision sessions will continue as normal

We are continuing to review

  • Year 9 options evening scheduled for Wednesday 22nd April
  • Planned educational visits

These measures will remain in place until Monday 27th April, when they will be reviewed.

New Government guidance for households with symptoms

Yesterday, the Government introduced new guidance on whole household isolation in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak:

  • if you live alone and you have symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19), however mild, stay at home for 7 days from when your symptoms started
  • if you live with others and you or another member of the household have symptoms of coronavirus, then all household members must stay at home and not leave the house for 14 days. The 14-day period starts from the day when the first person in the house became ill. It is likely that people living within a household will infect each other or be infected already. Staying at home for 14 days will greatly reduce the overall amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community
  • for anyone in the household who starts displaying symptoms, they need to stay at home for 7 days from when the symptoms appeared, regardless of what day they are on in the original 14-day isolation period.

The symptoms are:

  • A high temperature (37.8 degrees and above)
  • A new, continuous cough

The full stay at home guidance for households with these symptoms can be found here:

Handwashing advice

The most important thing individuals can do to protect themselves is to wash their hands more often, for at least 20 seconds, with soap and water. Public Health England recommends that in addition to handwashing before eating, and after coughing and sneezing, everyone should also wash hands after using toilets and travelling on public transport.

Watch this short NHS film for guidance: https://youtu.be/bQCP7waTRWU

Department for Education coronavirus helpline

The Department for Education coronavirus helpline is available to answer questions about COVID-19 relating to education and children’s social care. Parents and young people can contact this helpline on 0800 046 8687. Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday), 10am to 4pm (Saturday to Sunday)

Further updates

Please note that this is the most up to date information that we have, but the national picture is changing rapidly.

The current advice is that schools remain open. As such, we will continue to remain open unless government instruction or levels of staff absence require that we have to close partially or fully.

Once again, can I thank you for your continued support and assure you that we will do everything we can to keep any disruption to your children’s education to a minimum.

Yours faithfully

A Dickson

Headteacher