A A A
Achieve / Believe / Challenge
Back to all News

COVID Update Letter for Parents and Carers


Please see the letter below for parents and carers regarding the latest COVID update dated 29th March 2022. If you want to download the PDF file version of the letter, please CLICK HERE.

Date: 29.03.2022

Dear Parents/Carers,

You may be aware that from 1st April all restrictions, testing, self-isolation and declaration of a positive test result will cease. However, government guidance still requires us to take a responsible approach to any outbreak, and in line with health and safety, we will still have a duty of care to every person who comes on site. Therefore we will still be contacting you as parents and carers if your child has the following symptoms: new, continuous cough, high temperature, loss or change of taste or small.

From 1st April, special schools will no longer be provided with lateral flow tests for asymptomatic testing. Government guidance still advises all staff and secondary pupils to continue with twice weekly testing, but these will need to be purchased by individuals. From this date our covidtestresults@halesbury.dudley.sch.uk email address for reporting test results will be closed, and families will be asked to report a COVID absence in the same way as for other illnesses (e.g. sickness and diarrhoea) by calling the school and speaking to our admin team or leaving a voicemail. If you have to leave a message, a member of our team may contact you for more information or to give further advice.

You may have read or heard that you have the choice as to whether to test or isolate your child, and you are under no obligation in law if your child tests positive to isolate them for 10 days. However, the following government guidance is still in effect:

Children and young people with COVID-19 should not attend their education setting while they are infectious. They should take an LFD test from 5 days after their symptoms started (or the day their test was taken if they did not have symptoms) followed by another one the next day. If both these tests results are negative, they should return to their educational setting if they normally attend one, as long as they feel well enough to do so and do not have a temperature. They should follow the guidance for their educational setting. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-people-with-covid-19-and-their-contacts/covid-19-people-with-covid-19-and-their-contacts

Although the government has removed all legal restrictions, it still remains a dangerous condition for many of our more vulnerable pupils and staff. For this reason, we would ask you to work with us to do our best to protect both the health and education of our school community. This will help us minimise the negative impact of COVID on both health and education. Government guidance for SEND and specialist settings states:

If a parent or carer insists on their child attending your setting where they have a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19, you can take the decision to refuse them if, in your reasonable judgement, it is necessary to protect others from possible infection with COVID-19. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1057037/20220223_SEND_guidance.pdf

I acknowledge that this will be a very confusing time, with schools providing differing advice to comply with health and safety and Government guidance, as well as managing COVID to best support the needs of their school and community. All schools are required to publish their COVID risk assessment on their school website, and to have a Contingency Plan or Outbreak Management Plan in place outlining how measures will be stepped up or down in the event of a large outbreak. You will find both these documents on our website at this address: https://www.halesbury.dudley.sch.uk/about/policies-and-information

We will provide further updates and information, including updates to the COVID risk assessment and Contingency plan, via ParentHub, class staff and on our school website.

Thank you for your continued support to the school community throughout the pandemic.

Yours sincerely

Mr J Kulyk

Headteacher


Back to all News

our prospectus

DOWNLOAD

My childs
class

tell me more
POLICIES view all
REPORTS view all
OFSTED view all
National Autistic Society Accreditation Logo Early Bird Teen Life Licensed Logo CMYK 1 Dof E Halesbury School Logo Footer Rm Footer 4Anywhere Footer Integris Footer Pace Footer Connexions