17 Mar Coronavirus Update Tuesday 17th March
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE TUESDAY 17TH MARCH
You will be aware that the Prime Minister yesterday made a further announcement
on the situation regarding the spread of Coronavirus (Covid 19).
The symptoms of coronavirus are:
a cough
a high temperature
shortness of breath
The new advice is that if any member of your family or household shows possible
symptoms of Coronavirus then all members of the household must self-isolate within
the house for a period of 14 days to minimise the risk of spreading infection.
Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include regular hand
washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly
cooking meat and eggs. Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of
respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.
Families who are self-isolating to minimise the spread of infection, and to protect
the wider public, when a family member shows signs of the illness will not be
penalised for not attending school for the two-week period.
During this period, we have made provision to be more stringent when cleaning the
school and to clean more frequently throughout the school day on multi touch
surfaces such as door handles, light switches and hand rails.
We are contingency planning should the school be required to close due to the virus.
This involves planning and preparing for home learning away from the school site
whilst children are at home. Teachers will not be preparing home learning packs
whilst school is open.
We have made a decision to cancel all planned trips including swimming, in line with
the Prime Ministers advice to limit travel unless essential.
We have postponed all assemblies during this period including Mexico 4 (20th
March) and Nicaragua 4 (27th March). We will also cancel the school carnival during
the last week of term. We will also postpone Thursday morning Reading with parents
and carers for the foreseeable future.
We are thankful of the support we are receiving from parents as we make these
decisions in difficult times, where we follow government advice, advice from
Department for Education and Public Health England.