I am in regular contact with PHE to obtain advice to base our decision making. Based on this advice we are taking the following steps:

-          When we are informed by a parent that their child has tested positive for Covid, we send an email to the parents of the relevant class for information, asking them to be extra vigilant for any symptoms.

-          We have not been informing the whole school of every new case so as not to unnecessarily worry everyone; the only exceptions to this is that we inform the parents of immune-suppressed children who have asked to be informed.

-          However we are reminding parents in every weekly newsletter that there are cases and asking parents to be very vigilant for symptoms of Covid.

-          On the advice of PHE we are not asking the whole class to get PCR tested unless there are more than five cases in one class.

-          Obviously if any child displays any symptoms whilst in School, we will contact parents immediately and ask them to take their child for a PCR test, and only bring them back to school when they have received a negative result.

One particular area of concern which we have no control over is that children can’t be excluded from school if their PCR test result is negative, even though other members of their family test positive. Also, it is not our responsibility to inform all parents that there are Covid cases in families of our children unless one of our children develops Covid themselves.

Please feel free to email me if you have any queries about this and I will do our best to respond to these.