SHERBORNE PRIMARY SCHOOL Harbour Way Sherborne Dorset DT9 4AJ Telephone 01935 812619 Fax 01935 817943 e-mail office@sherbornepri.dorset.sch.uk Website www.sherbornepri.dorset.sch.uk
Headteacher: Mr Ian Bartle BA Ed (Hons) NPQH
September 2021 Covid-19 Update Reminder
Dear Parents/Carers I am writing to you with an update on our arrangements, for this term regarding Covid 19, due to the rule changes in England on 16th August. I am aware that some of our school community may be confused or unsure about the new arrangements so I wanted to try and clarify things as best as I can. If a member of your household receives a positive Covid result they must isolate and close contact will be identified by track and trace. If your child is identified as a close contact by NHS track and trace or the school, they need to get a PCR test as soon as possible. Current guidance states that children can return to school whilst awaiting the result of this test, however we would really appreciate children remaining at home until the result is back as negative. Should a parent refuse to ensure a pupil identified as a close contact has a PCR test, we may make the decision to refuse a child, should we feel it is a reasonable judgement and necessary to protect our school community. This is in line with current DfE guidance. We hope by doing this we will be able to avoid closing whole classes, teams or the school. If staff have to isolate this very quickly becomes a challenge to maintain highly effective education for your children. We feel this is the best way to keep our school community (and all our families) as safe as possible. To support this as a school, we will ensure children are not penalised for non-attendance whilst they await the result of a Covid test. If we have a number of children that receive positive test results, this may be classed as an outbreak and we may have to close the school and revert to remote learning. To try and avoid this happening in school, we have continued with enhanced cleaning, ventilation and hand hygiene, since we began back in school. Our staff are continuing to use lateral flow tests twice a week and we encourage parents to do this as well. To continue to support our school further with this, no child should come to school with any Covid symptoms that are listed below. If Covid symptoms develop whilst in school, we will ask you to collect your child and may advise you to get a PCR test. On the next page there is also a useful diagram to explain contract tracing in a little bit more detail. The main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) 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 Trust things orlimited tastebydifferent to normal Sherborne Area Schools’ is a smell company guarantee, Registered in England with Company number 08130468 Registered office: Bristol Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 4EQ
SHERBORNE PRIMARY SCHOOL Harbour Way Sherborne Dorset DT9 4AJ Telephone 01935 812619 Fax 01935 817943 e-mail office@sherbornepri.dorset.sch.uk Website www.sherbornepri.dorset.sch.uk
Headteacher: Mr Ian Bartle BA Ed (Hons) NPQH
Thank you all for your support with this as we try to continue to keep our school community as safe as possible.
Mr Ian Bartle (Headteacher) Sherborne Area Schools’ Trust is a company limited by guarantee, Registered in England with Company number 08130468 Registered office: Bristol Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 4EQ