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Dear Families,
Latest Update on Coronavirus, COVID-19
As I am sure you are all aware, on Thursday last week, in response to national and international developments regarding the coronavirus, the government announced that we have now moved from the ‘Contain’ phase to the ‘Delay’ phase of the Coronavirus Action Plan. Full details of each stage in the action plan can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-action-plan.
To support the delay of the spread of the virus, the Department for Health and Social Care has asked anyone who shows certain symptoms to stay at home for 7 days, regardless of whether they have travelled to affected areas. This means that people should stay home and avoid all but essential contact with others for 7 days- from the point of displaying mild symptoms, to slow the spread of the infection. The symptoms are:
The advice is that you do not need to call NHS 111 to stay at home. If your symptoms worsen during your stay at home or if your symptoms are no better after 7 days then please contact NHS 111 online via 111.nhs. If you have no internet access, you should call NHS 111. For a medical emergency dial 999.
As of the latest update, current advice states that no education or children’s social care setting should close in response to a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 case unless advised to do so by Public Health England.
Please know that we have drawn up a School Continuity Plan and we are keenly monitoring the situation on a daily basis, taking account of our school and local context, as well as adhering to the government’s and Public Health England’s advice and guidelines.
The most important thing we can all do to protect ourselves and each other is to wash our hands more often, for at least 20 seconds, with soap and water. Public Health England recommends that in addition to handwashing before eating and after coughing and sneezing, everyone should wash their hands after using toilets and travelling on public transport.
Last week, I reminded all the children of the importance of good hand hygiene. I also reminded the children about the NHS message of catching a sneeze in a tissue: ‘CATCH IT, BIN IT, KILL IT!’ I also added about washing hands after too. I have heard from some parents and carers that children have been sharing the ‘hand-washing song’ with families at home. Keep it up everyone. Thank you.
In order to delay the spread of the virus, I kindly ask that you all wash your hands before coming into school. Please know that we will be asking the children to wash their hands, at the end of the day too, before the children are dismissed at 3.30pm.
As of registration this morning, it is work as usual, at Valewood. In the event that a reduction of staffing levels compromises pupils’ learning and supervision, we do have continuity measures in place. In the event that school will close, we have been working on a plan of home-learning activities for each year group. Teachers will be ready to upload these learning activities onto Class Dojo and Year Group Pages on our website, as appropriate, if/ when the time comes.
I will endeavour to keep families updated via our school website and also via Twitter @ValewoodPrimary. Thank you for your continued co-operation, especially during the coming weeks. Best wishes, Headteacher ****************************************************************************************** Latest information from The Department for Education (DfE): https://twitter.com/educationgovuk DfE Helpline: 0800 046 8687 Monday-Friday, 8am to 6pm & weekends, 10am to 4pm. Please note that there will be a high volume of calls, hence the addition of weekend hours. |