1.3.22
Dear Parent/Carers,
We really enjoyed welcoming back your children to school and hope they came home happy after their first day.
For the first time in what seems like years, we had a ‘zero’ covid case number yesterday. It does seem like we are approaching the end of a very long dark tunnel as far as covid is concerned 😊
As ever, we take the advice from the Health Protection Hub and their guidance stipulates the need to continue with adequate ventilation, regular handwashing and really thorough cleaning.
They also say that if numbers allow, that there is no need for staff to wear face coverings unless they feel off colour or if they feel vulnerable. Social distancing is being relaxed and we are gradually moving to more ‘normal’ practices such as assemblies together in the hall.
We also plan to reintroduce some of our in school, face to face activity including parents evening (more information to follow).
Of course, covid has not disappeared and as the Government says, we need to ‘learn to live with it’. The advice still stipulates that –
‘If you have COVID-19, stay at home and avoid contact with other people’
We know that if you have COVID-19 you can infect other people from 2 days before your symptoms start, and for up to 10 days after. You can pass on the infection to others, even if you have mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. The advice is still the same – ‘if you have COVID-19 you should stay at home and avoid contact with other people’. The Health Protection Hub tells us that children with Covid should not attend school while they are infectious. They should take an LFD test from 5 days after their symptoms started (or the day their test was taken if they did not have symptoms) followed by another one the next day. If both these tests results are negative, they should return to school, as long as they feel well enough to do so and do not have a temperature.
We know that our parent community is very supportive and that parents will agree that a pupil with the key symptoms of COVID-19 should not attend the school, given the potential risk to others. As before, if a parent or carer insists on a pupil attending school where they have a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19, we can take the decision to refuse the pupil if, in our reasonable judgement, it is necessary to protect other pupils and staff from possible infection with COVID-19.
We will keep you informed as to cases in our school, but have our fingers firmly crossed that they stay at that magical ‘zero’ figure!
I know that many of you will have seen, or at least heard of our new addition to the Newdale family… the children voted on what the beech tree stump should become and now we have a wonderful bear, who we think represents strength and resilience for our school. Of course, the children also think it is great that Buddy Bear has now got a friend he can talk to! What we need now is a name – all ideas gratefully received! We have asked the children to come up with one!
We will soon be reminding and informing you of upcoming events in school and until then I thank you for your ongoing support and look forward to a much easier half term.
Miss Cook
Headteacher
Newdale Primary School and Nursery