Dear Parents and Carers,
As many of you would have heard on social media, yesterday evening, we were informed of a confirmed COVID case in Year 1. To clarify, this is the only confirmed COVID case that was reported yesterday - other children have been tested and negative results have been confirmed.
As always, we have informed the Department for Education, who have provided public health advice as well as assessing risks and directing the school on how to respond.
The advice is clear that action is only required in Year 1, where the positive case has been confirmed. This is because children and staff in this class may have been in contact with a child who was infectious at the time - this is not the case in other classes. I am also aware that it has been reported on social media that there are multiple COVID cases in certain classes - can I assure you all that this is not the case and if it were, we would immediately follow public health guidance.
This is the second confirmed case of a child with COVID in our school. The first had been self isolating away from school for a significant number of days, before any symptoms occurred or a test taken. Public health advice was clear that there was not a risk of infection because the child was away from school during any possible infection period. Current public health advice states, ‘The time when people who have tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) are infectious to others is from 2 days before the onset of symptoms to 10 days afterwards (or from 2 days prior to the date of their test to 10 days afterwards if they have had no symptoms)’
I will be sharing information soon with staff, parents and carers of children in Year 1 of what precautionary measures we will be taking - closely following public health advice. There will also be a public health letter to be shared with the whole school that will be shared later.
We expect to see all other classes in on Monday as normal.
These are difficult and stressful times but please rest assured that we will always take action wherever there are concerns, following public health advice.
Kind regards
Matt Condon
Headteacher
