Dear Parents / Carers
As we come to the end of a very different, difficult but none the less successful term, I write to outline the plans regarding Covid over the Christmas holiday and for the return to school. Please read the below carefully as it is important!
You only need to inform the school of a child receiving a positive test if the symptoms appeared within 48 hours of them last being in school. Please inform us using Class Dojo or by emailing office@clockhouse.havering.sch.uk. A member of the team will then contact you. We will then follow the necessary steps in terms of contact tracing. As a school we are required to contact trace up until Christmas Eve, therefore please do keep an eye on the Dojo and please do answer calls that come from an unknown number as it could be us! If we inform you that your child has come into close contact with a positive test case before the end of term, they must self-isolate your child up to the date that we give you.
If the symptoms appear after 48 hours of the last being in school, you should follow the contact tracing instructions provided by the NHS Test and Trace. You can also inform the school using the above channels but there would be no further action for us to take.
As you are aware, even though it is Christmas it is still vital that you of arrange for your child to be tested as soon as symptoms appear and that the household isolate until results are received. We would strongly advise that you do NOT order a home test, but that you book an appointment at a local test center as you will receive the results far quicker.
As you may be aware all school staff have been asked to take two Covid tests over the Christmas break, one at the beginning and one at the end of the holiday to support the fight against the virus and identify people who are asymptomatic. As a school we fully support this. You may already be aware that with asymptomatic testing you are not required to isolate whilst you await results, obviously this is up to individual staff. However, at the Headteacher of our school, I truly believe we have worked so hard to keep everyone as safe as possible and do not feel comfortable with the idea of bringing staff and children back into school without knowing staffs results. We have therefore made the difficult decision to move an Inset Day later in the year to Tuesday 5th January. This means that the children will not return to school until Wednesday 6th January. We understand this may be difficult for you, but I already anticipate increased disruption to education in January but this is another control measure we can put in place to further control and reduce the risk to all.
I apologies for any inconvenience caused but hope that you can support our decision. Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
As always, thank you for you on-going support. It is such a tough time for us all, in so many different ways but we are in it together and will get thought it together.
Happy Christmas Clockhouse, here’s hoping we will not be in touch over the holiday!
Looking forward to a better 2021.
Kind
regards
Mrs
Savidge
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