Covid Updates

March 10th 2022

As things are changing with the way we all live with covid-19 there has been some confusion about the rules for schools. I thought it would be useful for you to have some clarity about the guidelines we are being asked to follow in our school. Staff in specialist provisions that provide for children of secondary age are still being asked to do twice weekly LFD tests. Secondary age pupils in special schools are also asked to test twice week if they can. We have test kits in school, if your child can tolerate tests, and you would like us to send some home, please let us know. If anyone has one of the main symptoms of covid 19 they should not come into school.

If a pupil develops one of these symptoms in school and the staff working closely with the pupil are concerned, we will need to ask parents/ carers to arrange for them to have a PCR test. If they are not able to have a PCR test and are still displaying the symptoms of Covid 19 we will not be able to have them back in until the symptoms have gone.

We are not in a position to be able to make a judgement about whether a new or different cough might be covid, a cold or another respiratory illness. For this reason we ask that pupils with the symptoms are not in school unless they have a negative test or are symptom free.

We do know calls to ask parents to collect poorly children cause upset and inconvenience. However, we hope you understand that we are following guidance to continue to keep the school safe and operational.

Other local schools are seeing a new rise in cases again with classes closing, we want to do all we can to prevent that happening at Stone Bay.

We are also mindful that we have had staff who have been extremely poorly having contracted covid. We have a duty of care to protect everyone in our school community.

We ask that you are respectful to any member of school staff who calls to request you collect your child.
However difficult the situation, our staff do not deserve to be shouted at and we will not tolerate rudeness.

A reminder the main symptoms of COVID-19 are a recent onset of the following:

a new continuous cough
a high temperature
a loss of, or change in, your normal sense of taste or smell (anosmia)

If you have any of these symptoms you should order a PCR test. You are advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people while you are waiting for the test result.
You should also follow this advice if you have a positive LFD test result, even if you do not have any symptoms.

All our staff thank you for your continued support 

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