Covid 19

Reducing the risk of transmission in our school

We have completed a full risk assessment which is reviewed regularly and have put into place a number of controls to help reduce the risk of transmission in our school.

These measures include:

Keeping upper school as a group and lower school as a group
Designated seating for pupils
Designated isolation room
Reduced movement around the school building
Thorough cleaning of the school building and resources
Additional hand sanitising and hand washing facilities
Staggered finish times
One way systems
Allocated toilet facilities for classes
Allocated hand washing facilities for classes
Assemblies in classrooms if an outbreak of Covid is identified

We have fully considered and implemented the guidance from the Department for Education: guidance for full school opening, Public Health England Covid-19 Early Outbreak Management, Gov.uk: Covid-19 cleaning of non-healthcare settings outside the home and Gov.uk: Safe working in education, childcare and children's social care. We continue to keep up to date with the latest government guidance and will implement this as it is received.

Recognising the symptoms of coronavirus

The main symptoms of coronavirus 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

Many people with coronavirus have at least one of these symptoms.

For clinical advice you can contact the NHS 111 Covid 19 website at https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19/

To Book a PCR test please visit https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test

If you have difficulty obtaining a test via the website you can call the NHS coronavirus helpline on 119.

Advice for parents

Please click here to view our Information for Parents regarding suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19.

What if my child is unwell?

If your child is showing any one of the main symptoms of coronavirus: a high temperature – this means they feel hot to touch on their chest or back, a new, continuous cough or a loss of, or change in, their normal sense of smell or taste and/or tests positive on a LFD test:

Do not send your child to school and take a LFD test if you have not already.

Inform the school office straight away.
Following the government's current advice, your child will isolate for between 5 and 10 days and will not return to school during that time. They should take a PCR test if they have symptoms. No one else in your household will need to isolate unless they develop symptoms or are contacted by NHS Test and Trace.
We also encourage children over 5 to take regular twice-weekly LFD tests within the household.
If anyone in your household develops Covid-19, any household contacts over 5 years old, who are not legally required to self-isolate, are now also strongly advised to take a rapid lateral flow device (LFD) test every day for 7 days. If any of these LFD tests are positive, they should self-isolate and parents should inform the school immediately. Currently, there is no need to obtain a PCR test to confirm the LFD result.
Up-to-date guidance on when and how to isolate can be found here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/

If a child under 5 is a contact of a confirmed case, they are not required to self-isolate and should not start daily testing. Please refer to the following guidance on advice for under 5’s here (gov.uk link).

Taking into account the government’s advice and the need to balance the ongoing risks of Covid-19 against the importance of children returning to school, the Trust has agreed three key objectives to guide our planning: http://www.glfschools.org/1168/coronavirus-covid-19

Risk Assessment

Below, we have provided a document which shows what support is available for parents/carers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Staggered Collection Times

We have implemented staggered finish times for upper school and lower school to reduce the numbers of people needing to access the school at key times. We ask that all members of the community adhere to social distancing while dropping off or collecting pupils.

We ask families to adhere to their allotted time slot wherever possible to ease congestion.