Dear Parents and carers,
I am sure that you will have seen the governments ‘Living With Covid’ announcement regarding the changes to the self-isolation guidelines, testing and vaccination passports. It is positive that after two long years, we are edging towards life without Covid restrictions, although as a community we must be mindful that this elicits different responses in those around us.
The DfE wrote to schools sharing information which I am sharing with you. The bold text comes directly from the DfE email.
Changes to self-isolation and daily testing of close contacts
From Thursday 24 February, the Government will remove the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test. Adults and children who test positive will continue to be advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for at least 5 full days, and then continue to follow the guidance until they have received 2 negative test results on consecutive days. In addition, the Government will: No longer ask fully vaccinated close contacts and those aged under 18 to test daily for 7 days, and remove the legal requirement for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to self-isolate. Staff, children and young people should attend their education settings as usual. This includes staff who have been in close contact within their household, unless they are able to work from home.
You will see that the advice is for people who have Covid to remain at home for at least 5 full days and then follow the guidance until they have received two negative lateral flows.
Although these are now guidelines rather than legal requirements, we hope that parents will choose to adhere to these guidelines. This will help to ensure that our staff remain Covid-free and therefore able to continue to provide high quality education to your children. Your support will hopefully allow us to avoid another situation where we were struggling to staff our classes.
We have been asking visitors to wear masks when they are on school grounds in order to help reduce the risk of transmission. As I mentioned earlier, members of the school community feel differently about the changes in restrictions so if you feel able to do so, it would be appreciated if parents and visitors would continue to wear masks when they come into the school grounds or building.
The sun is shining and the days are getting longer. We hope that the rest of this year can include more school trips, face to face parent meetings and events, which will all contribute to a greater sense of well-being and normality for our school community.
We hope you have all had a restful half term and look forward to seeing you on Monday 28th February.
Many thanks for your support as always to help keep our school a healthy and happy place.
Kind regards,
Mrs Williams