Newsletter: 14th January 2022

Posted on January 14, 2022 | By Mr Cole | 2 responses

Covid Update

What a week! As you will know, things aren’t going in the right direction for the school at the moment with regards to Covid infections. As a result of this week’s spike, we have followed all guidance supplied to us directly from the Department for Education (DfE). I know a couple of parents have contacted us to request we reinstate staggered starts and class bubbles, but as I have explained to them we must follow the guidance we are given by the DfE and, for the moment, that guidance explicitly rules out either of those two measures – largely to help protect the mental health of our children who really struggle emotionally from being cut off from the rest of the school.

Other than additional in-session cleaning, sanitising and ventilation which was taking place anyway, the DfE has instructed us to stop indoor activities which brings classes together – this includes assemblies and sharing space like the Hall for eating. For this reason, Cranford, Burscott, Stroxworthy and Alminstone classes are eating their lunches in their classrooms whilst Sunflowers and Ashmansworthy classes continue to eat in the hall but at different times.

There are no restrictions on children mixing outdoors.

Obviously these rules mean that sadly we have had to pull out of the Pantomime visits next week so school will continue here as normal on Wednesday and Thursday.

These measures will all stay in place until our case rate falls back to “normal” levels, but with 15 children off with Covid at the moment, it is extremely unlikely this will be for several weeks. In the meantime, please continue daily LFD testing with your child so we can reduce the number of children coming in to school with the virus and unwittingly spreading it.

New Isolation Guidelines

As you know, the isolation period was reduced again to five days just yesterday. The DfE have clarified how this change affects schools:

• From Monday 17 January, people who are self-isolating with COVID-19 will have the option to reduce their isolation period after 5 full days if they test negative with a lateral flow device (LFD) test on both day 5 and day 6 and they do not have a temperature.
• For example, if they test negative on the morning of day 5 and the morning of day 6, they can return to their education or childcare setting immediately on day 6.
• The first test must be taken no earlier than day 5 of the self-isolation period, and the second must be taken the following day. All test results should be reported to NHS Test and Trace.
• If the result of either of their tests is positive, they should continue to self-isolate until they get negative results from two LFD tests on consecutive days or until they have completed 10 full days of self-isolation, whichever is earliest.
• Anyone who is unable to take LFD tests or anyone who continues to have a temperature will need to complete the full 10 day period of self-isolation.

Source: DfE Update to Schools 14th January 2022 9:46am

We are asking for an email copy of the NHS Test and Trace email confirming negative results before re-admission to schools so please opt IN to this when you fill out the online form for your child. You should forward the emails to admin@woolsery.devon.sch.uk  Please don’t send us photos of the lateral flow device itself, thank you.

Swimming

Swimming is unaffected by all the Covid measures above, so Ashmansworthy will continue to swim on Fridays throughout the term. Just a reminder that in a change to our swimming routine in the past, school is providing fabric swimming hats for the children so there is no need to send your child in with one. Thanks.

After School Clubs

Clubs resume next week. Please use this form is you’ve not yet booked a space and would like to: https://forms.gle/1T4UmFPamvMEPSEKA

Online Safety update

Devon Safeguarding have circulated a Parent Pack from the Lucy Faithful Foundation to give support if your child is getting into trouble with inappropriate content online. It’s a really good pack, particularly for older Primary and Secondary age children and can be downloaded here: LFF- Stop it Now Parents Pack

Devon and Cornwall Police have also created a really useful resource page for parents and young people about all types of online exploitation. This can be found here: LookSus TellUs resources

1st Woolsery Scouts are now taking bookings for the second Big Curry event, this time being held at Woolsery Community Hall on 13th February 12:30 to 2:30pm.

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