13-10-2020 - Community Update

Tuesday 13th October 2020

UPDATE FOR PARENTS (NOT YEAR 10 'CONTACT' OR YEAR 10 'NON-CONTACT')

Dear parent or carer,

You are likely aware of the self-isolation of a year group on Monday 12/10/2020 and today Tuesday 13/10/2020, which was determined following our consultation with the DfE helpline on Saturday morning. I have expressed separately to these parents our thanks to those of you who engaged with us in dialogue to explore the worries and concerns we all felt as we worked through the processes schools need to follow. It is important for parents and carers to understand in the clearest terms that, in order to put health and safety of all first, it was imperative to follow the guidance read to us by this helpline in the first instance on Saturday - I have promised you that we will adhere to the guidance straightforwardly throughout the C-19 situation, and then work step by step through what we need to do, and we always will do so. We will not 'jump the gun' or anticipate decisions until we are as certain as we can be in these difficult situations. 

We had to do that on Saturday morning, with no other helplines open over the weekend and the school community closed, in order to fine tune the type of close contact tracing it is left to Leadership Teams to do thoroughly and as accurately as humanly possible each and every time there is a confirmed case. 

At the beginning of the new week, we consulted the local Public Health England South East helpline, who are not open on the weekends. We have also spent the weekend gathering information that is now as accurate as possible for you with respect to close contact - according to Government definitions of this - between the person who has tested positive and other students in the bubble throughout the correct days.

Covid-19

A reminder of Government definitions of close contact to which we must work

The criteria is set out below and has been taken directly from government documentation:

Who is a contact?

A ‘contact’ is a person who has been close to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 anytime from 2 days before the person was symptomatic up to 10 days from onset of symptoms (this is when they are infectious to others). For example, a contact can be:

  • people who spend significant time in the same household as a person who has tested positive for COVID-19
  • a person who has had face-to-face contact (within one metre), with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, including:
    • being coughed on
    • having a face-to-face conversation within one metre
    • having skin-to-skin physical contact, or
    • contact within one metre for one minute or longer without face-to-face contact
    • a person who has been within 2 metres of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 for more than 15 minutes
    • a person who has travelled in a small vehicle with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 or in a large vehicle or plane near someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 

We are grateful to those parents and carers who contacted us over the weekend and since to say they understood that these definitions need careful working through with all of the correct bodies, and that therefore to self-isolate the year group first until all that work could be done was the safest way to proceed over the weekend.

We have now made contact with the families in this year group with respect to whether or not their children need to continue to self-isolate according to the processes and definitions required, and some children in that year group will return to school tomorrow – Wednesday 14th October.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write via health@noadswood.hants.sch.uk  - we are very grateful to you for using this one central email address about COVID-19 related queries.

I would like to end by reiterating my thanks to everyone involved for your forbearance over the weekend and into this week, that enabled us to work carefully through the decisions necessary. We are part of a very strong and supportive community and you are a big part of that.

We will pass on everyone's best wishes to the family of the person with the confirmed case, as I know you would want.

 

 

KMr

 

   

 

 

Kathryn Marshall and the Noadswood Leadership Team