LATEST COVID ADVICE

March 2022

On the 24th February the Government made announcements about changes to restrictions.

Things to note:

• For secondary aged children and staff in a SEND schools there is still the expectation to do LFD tests twice a week (this may increase if we have an outbreak)

• We would expect anyone who has been in contact with a positive case to wear masks and LFD test daily for 10 days to protect staff and students.

• Whilst face coverings are no longer mandatory, the advice is that pupils should continue to wear them on transport due to the close proximity and lack of ventilation

• We will continue to pay close attention to ventilating rooms, regular hand washing and maintaining regular cleaning routines.

If your child has symptoms of covid we would ask you to get them a PCR. If they test positive, they should stay at home and avoid contact with other people COVID-19: people with COVID-19 and their contacts - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Symptoms We have all lived with and know well the symptoms of the original COVID variants:

• continuous cough

• fever/high temperature (37.8C or greater)

• loss of, or change in, sense of smell or taste (anosmia) However, the issue now is that the newer Omicron variant has the following most common symptoms:

• Runny nose

• Headache

• Fatigue (either mild or severe) / Body Aches

• Sneezing

• Sore throat

The challenge in relation to these new symptoms is that you could have these symptoms at any time of year if you were struggling with a common cold, hayfever etc and didn’t have COVID at all.

Therefore we are using the term ‘unwell’ instead of symptoms. If a pupil feels / appears unwell at home, pupils should do a Lateral Flow Test if at all possible.

If you have positive COVID cases in your household, pupils should do a Lateral Flow Test daily. If it is not possible to do a Lateral Flow Test and your child presents as unwell or there is COVID in your household, please keep your child at home to support us with keeping potential COVID cases outside of the School Community and to protect our highly vulnerable children.

If your child tests positive for COVID-19 they can infect other people from 2 days before symptoms start, and for up to 10 days after. They can pass on the infection to others, even if the symptoms are mild or there are no symptoms at all. A positive test for COVID-19 means that they should stay at home and avoid contact with other people.

They should:

·        not attend school. School will provide work if your child is well enough to complete it.

·        not invite social visitors into your home, including friends and family

·        postpone all non-essential services and repairs that require a home visit

·        cancel routine medical and dental appointments. If you are concerned about your child’s health or they have been asked to attend an appointment in person during this time, discuss this with the medical contact and let them know about the test result

·        if you can, let people who your child has been in close contact with know about the positive test result so that they can follow this guidance

Many people will no longer be infectious to others after 5 days. An LFD test can be taken from 5 days after symptoms started (or the day your test was taken if there weren’t any symptoms) followed by another LFD test the next day. If both these test results are negative, and there is no high temperature, the risk that the person is still infectious is much lower and it is safe to return to normal routine.

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Please note that if School has an outbreak, we will be returning to our outbreak management plan which will include the reintroduction of face masks, more frequent LFD testing and increased social distancing.

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