The Head Teachers of the three village schools here in Haddenham have published the following briefing to assist parents and guardians in understanding the Covid situation in schools:
Dear Parents and Carers
We realise that this half term has not been an easy one for all with all the many systems and protocols that we've all had to manage and the ever changing guidance that everyone has to try and keep up with .
Whilst good news is that cases in Haddenham, Dinton and Stone have remained relatively low in comparison to other parts of the county, they have at least doubled consistently each week since we received the schools tracking app. So we thank you for maintaining social distancing on the school run and for following our procedures that we have put in place. Good news is also that we have not yet had a confirmed case in a Haddenham school and then therefore, all three schools have remained fully open.
Whilst we as school leaders aim to take our first proper school holiday since March, we would still urge anyone who receives a confirmed test result for their child to get in contact with us via our school office emails as we would still need to report this to Public Health England who would then need to carry out a risk assessment. This could then mean that groups of children may have to isolate depending when the case was confirmed and we would then need to contact the relevant families.
The tracing window could be in the period after the holiday started, thereby meaning that contacts wouldn't be considered to have taken place at school. In such cases it may be appropriate for us to refer parents to use the main public contact tracing route. For example, it is plausible that infections could be picked up by children socialising together during half term, with symptoms and a positive test presenting towards the end of the week, either way it would be helpful for us to know so that we are able to make informed decisions.
If over half term your child displays at least one of the following symptoms you must access a test:
a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal
For more information please follow the information on this link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms/
With our best wishes for a lovely half term,
Mrs K Collett, Mr A Leach, Mrs L McNeil
