This page has been provided to give families key information about the school during the Coronavirus pandemic and to provide you with regular updates regarding any school closure.

School status

The school is fully open for all pupils of all ages.

^{The Government may instruct that the school is to close to pupils other than those who are Critical Worker or vulnerable children. In this instance, the school will define vulnerable pupils as those who have social care involvement, have an EHCP, are Looked After Children (LAC; SGO) or are Post Looked After Children (PLAC). Critical Worker and vulnerable children would be taught from 8:45am to 3:30pm in our 'Rainbow' classes. All information regarding Rainbow class would be sent to families at the time and would be accessed at the bottom of this page.}

Omicron Variant - December 2021

The number of positive cases across the country has been rising significantly. Therefore, families do need to be mindful that changes can be made to the organisation of the school day and to the site at any time. This is also the case if the school has an 'outbreak' (a high number of positive cases within one particular area of the school at any one time) during the school week. These changes would be communicated with parents via email and our guidance document updated. Currently, we are still working from the guidance document from September 2021 which can be found at the bottom of this page. Any changes are always made with the purpose of ensuring we help keep pupils, parents, staff and visitors safe.

Attendance

Any child who is displaying any symptoms of COVID-19 are advised to isolate for three days and not attend school during this period. 

 

What is the Coronavirus and what are the symptoms?

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a type of virus. As a group, coronaviruses are common across the world. COVID-19 is a strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan City, China in January 2020.

The incubation period of COVID-19 is between 2 and 14 days. This means that if a person remains well 14 days after contact with someone with confirmed Coronavirus, it is unlikely that they have been infected.

The main symptoms of COVID-19 are still:

• 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 three 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

Generally, these infections can cause more severe symptoms in people with weakened immune systems, older people, and those with long-term conditions like diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease. There is no evidence that children are more affected than other age groups – very few cases have been reported in children.

Preventing the spread of infection:

The best way to prevent infection is through hygiene. Some general principles that help prevent the spread of respiratory viruses include:

• washing your hands often with soap and water
• covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throwing the tissue in a bin. See Catch it, Bin it, Kill it
• use an alcohol-based hand sanitiser that contains at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available
• avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands
• wearing a face covering
• clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces
• ventilating rooms

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Further information can be gained on the Public Health England Blog and the NHS UK website. If anyone who is asymptomatic has a Coronavirus test and the outcome is positive, they must self-isolate for 10 days from the date of the test.

To find out current, up-to-date information about the spread of Coronavirus, please visit this link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public

Important information

As a school, we follow Government advice and instruction regarding COVID-19. We will regularly update parents about our plans via this website page, through our social media platforms and in our weekly newsletter. If parents have any questions, please do contact us directly via the school office. Whilst children and staff are at the school, we are doing everything that we can to ensure that no infection happens. Children and staff are encouraged regularly to wash their hands throughout the day and full cleaning takes place daily as it should, including a full deep clean weekly. We are continually educating the children about the virus to make them aware but we do not panic the children un-necessarily. Whilst in school, all of our children follow our 'Coronavirus Code of Conduct'. These can be viewed or downloaded below.

Catch-Up Funding Strategy

All schools have received extra funding to combat the impact that COVID-19 and school closures had on children's education. To see the school's strategy plans for how we are using this funding, please see the 'Catch-Up Funding Strategy' document at the bottom of the page.