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Parent update 12.11.2020

Important information

A member of class staff has tested positive for COVID-19. Their symptoms appeared on Thursday/Friday last week.  The advice from Public Health was that there is 48 hours prior to symptoms appearing when that person is infectious. Therefore, the possible time of infection was part of Wednesday/Thursday of that week and this was confined to any close contact in one class of the school.

The staff and pupils in that class have been advised to isolate for 14 days from the 6^th November and obviously the area has been deep cleaned.

The guidance from Public Health is that there is no need for other members of the school community to isolate or areas of the school to be closed.

We therefore intend for the school to remain open. 

You may feel that you would rather keep your child at home for the same isolation period but our advice from Public Health is that there is no need to do so.  We will view this as a matter for parents to decide.

If you have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.  Please do let us know if you or anyone in your family develop COVID-19 symptoms or has tested positive.

All pupils will be bringing a copy of this letter home with them from school today.

Parent update 11.11.2020

Dear Parents / Carers

Covid-19 update

Subsequent to the announcement of the second national lockdown restrictions we have received additional guidance via GovUk for schools. This tends to filter down on a day by day basis so please bear with us if things change at a later date

We continue to check the detailed application of these 'rules' with local public health officials and regional DFE through NE Lincs officers.

On the Clinically Vulnerable ( CV )and Clinically Extremely Vulnerable ( CEV ) there have been changes to the guidance given in the first lockdown. The Government say that this is a result of them 'knowing more' about the virus and different levels of susceptibility -

CV staff and pupils can still attend school.

CEV adults are directed not to go work. These individuals should receive a letter from their specialist or GP confirming their CEV status

For CEV children the guidance appears to have altered slightly.

Some children will have been removed from the previous CEV list. We would advise parents to check with their GPs that they are receiving the latest CEV status notification.

Also it is clear that for CEV children attendance or non attendance recommendations are 'advisory'.

We have checked this locally and the prevailing view seems to be that parents and schools should have a discussion about the child's best interests overall. So clearly there is a balance to be talked through between any levels of risk to a child by attending and any detrimental effects on their emotional, physical and social well being caused by not attending school .

The school welcomes the opportunity to have that discussion and we will respect each parent's decision on this matter.

If any parent is undecided about this please do get in touch with myself or either of the Deputy Headteachers and we'll be happy to discuss this with you. We can also seek the advice of Rachel and Chloe our specialist nurses.

Social Distancing measures

Within school we are experiencing the same problem that schools across the country are with keeping to separate staff units ('bubbles') whilst still maintaining effective class ratios in the face of mounting staff absences.

Although we have had only one positive staff case several staff have had to effectively isolate because of household members testing positive or where their children have been sent home from other schools.

In order to minimise regular but short period movement of staff across the school to cover absences we are adopting week long changes from classes with a surplus of staff to those classes with a shortage. This allows for weekends to act as effective breaks to any potential 48 hour infection periods 

We are also implementing other changes to reduce occasions for close staff association during this period of high infection rates in the area.

The indication from local public health officials is that unless there is a significant change in our area's infection rates NE Lincs may find itself in Tier 3 restrictions even if the national lockdown ceases at the start of December.

Clearly we will keep this under review.

For children at home due to Covid concerns the school has to provide support and advice regarding continuing relevant educational activities. Please do get in touch with us if you are experiencing any problems with receiving resources or help with home/school programmes or simply regular contact from school.

Free School Meal Vouchers during holiday periods.

It has been announced that this will continue through the Christmas and Easter breaks

We will let the parents of those children eligible know how this is going to work when we've had clearer details.

Questionnaire about online communication and access preferences

We would be grateful if you could complete and return this if you have not already done so 

Information links on the School's website

We have posted links to NE Lincs parents newsletters which includes a section on SEND

If you have any concerns or questions about this update or any other matter please call us.

So as always we end by advising everyone to abide by the restrictions and help us keep pupils and staff safe

Regards

Andy Zielinski

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Useful information 

https://sites.google.com/view/hpshomeschool/home

Hearing aids

Audiology - Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust.

Replacement batteries call 03033 304645 for Grimsby or email nlg-tr.audiology@nhs.net

Hearing aid repair, send your hearing aid to the team based at Grimsby hospital along with a brief description of the problem.