Headlines By James Saunders 17th September 2021
There are some key tests that will require us to step up measures and take further action such as masks becoming compulsory or asking groups to isolate. Open Evening
After only a couple of weeks into term we are already looking ahead to Open Evening and preparations for next year’s cohort of learners. Last year we were not able to offer a traditional Open Evening and just held a series of small Headteacher talks combined with personal tours of the school in the school day. These tours were really successful and parents commented on how great it was to be able to still see the school authentically in action. We have decided to continue with this approach to tours this year and welcome families to make contact to arrange their personal tour. We have risk assessed this approach to tours to ensure everyone remains safe. We are currently making plans to have a more traditional Open Evening too - dependent on any changes that may occur locally or nationally over the next few weeks. To enable a face to face Open Evening to take place we are looking at a range of measures to keep families and staff safe. These measures will include: • No tour guides to take you around the school -
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instead learners will be situated at key places around school to guide you and we will provide you with a map and directions to explore the school. Limit on numbers of people in classrooms Limit on numbers attending presentations Use of face coverings will also be required in the same way you will find in shops, banks and other public areas Hand sanitiser will be provided around the school
Covid update You will be aware of the changing guidance regarding managing Covid cases in school. I shared a useful diagram last week to help you decide what to do if you suspect your child has Covid or has tested positive via a lateral flow test. The guidance for learners is certainly more vague and less restrictive than before. Test and Trace are now responsible for tracking and should be asking learners about any close contacts. To date we have not had any further communications from any contact tracing personnel.
The threshold we must reach before we contact Public Health England is as follows: • 5 learners/staff who are likely to have mixed closely test positive within a 10 day period • 10% learners/staff who are likely to have mixed closely test positive within a 10 day period As it stands over the last 10 days we have been informed of seven learners who have tested positive - 3 in C7; 2 in C8; 1 in C10; 1 in C11. Combined, these cases do not yet meet the threshold to instigate any further contingency measures. We are monitoring things daily and will inform you should we need to take further action. We are not alone in having positive cases in school. Some schools have had upwards of thirty in the last ten days. As the landscape changes we may well need to reintroduce tighter measures. As a reminder, we are still encouraging the use of masks in communal and crowded spaces and always have them available should learners require them. Update on Vaccinations in Schools Second week in and we have quickly discovered that despite attempts to get to as back to normal as possible things are not quite there yet. It has been a busy week in the world of education - we now have a new Education Secretary and the much debated topic of child vaccines has been given the green light. Contrary to media rhetoric we are not spending our days extolling the virtues of vaccines. Our focus is on the business of teaching and learning and trying to get the school back to normal. We are, first and foremost, educators and whilst grappling with the challenges that have been thrown at us over the pandemic all we really want to do is get on with the business of running our school. Testing was one thing. Invasive medical procedures are quite something else and are well beyond the remit of school staff. Generally speaking, schools in England are required to work with the NHS and Public Health England in order to facilitate the delivery of any school based vaccine programme. For us this will be led by the School Age Immunisation Service who currently manage and administer vaccinations for learners - eg: HPV, or Flu. The role of the school is to provide a premises for this to take place locally.