Covid-19 Updates
We will be using this page to communicate any updates to parents/carers and the local community of Elburton Primary. Our aim is to give you the clearest and most up to date information as we receive it.
Saturday 17th October 2020
FOR PARENTS/CARERS OF FOUNDATION CHILDREN AT ELBURTON
We have been made aware that we have a confirmed positive case of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Foundation Stage at Elburton Primary School.
We have followed the national guidance and have identified that your child has been in close contact with the affected child. In line with the national guidance your child must stay at home and self-isolate until Wednesday 28th October (14 days after contact).
The Foundation Stage teaching team will share home learning activities with you next week on Tapestry. Please see Tapestry for further information regarding ways to support your child’s learning when not in school.
Our site manager and cleaning team will ensure the Foundation Stage areas have an enhanced clean prior to your children returning to school after half term.
If your child is well at the end of the 14 days period of self-isolation, then they can return to usual activities.
Other members of your household can continue normal activities provided your child does not develop symptoms within the 14 day self-isolation period.
Please see the link to: Guidance for contacts of people with confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) infection who do not live with the person
Parents/Carers
·We would ask parents/carers to limit their approach/communication to staff on the playground and at the school gates. Senior members of staff will be available to speak to at the Foundation/KS1 entrance and at the KS2 entrance gate each day.
·All contact will be via email, telephone or Tapestry (where applicable) Any messages for specific staff must be telephoned through to the school office to be passed on.
Important message for Parents/Carers
It has been great to see so many children and young people returning to school and the work that has been conducted locally to ensure a safe return. It is inevitable that for some children and young people they will feel unwell and for many this could include Covid related symptoms.
This message contains important information about how you can get a test. You cannot get a test by arriving at the Testing Centre without an appointment and you should not go to the hospital (Emergency Department) or your GP for a test.
Evidence to date has shown that children usually have much milder symptoms and they have tended to pick up the infection from home rather than from school. However it remains extremely important that any child with symptoms of Covid stays away for school, to avoid the risk of spreading infection to others, including the more vulnerable. These symptoms are:
• high temperature – feeling hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
• new, continuous cough – 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)
• loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different from normal
Over the last week we have seen a number of children being referred for a Covid 19 test in accordance with national guidance. If your child has been in close contact with a confirmed case, they will be asked to self-isolate at home. Please DO NOT try to get your child tested unless they have developed the symptoms of COVID19. A negative test result does not mean that they can go back to school; it simply means that they had not fully developed the illness at the time of the test, and they could develop the illness at any point in the 14 days.
We are very aware that in Plymouth, as elsewhere, there have been delays in accessing tests. This is a national issue as laboratory capacity for analysing tests is being directed to areas in the country with the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases. We are doing all we can to work with national agencies to increase the capacity available.
We understand how frustrating this can be, particularly with children returning to school and being asked to stay off school until they can get a COVID-19 test. However, it is crucial that we keep our schools open, and continue to keep our children and communities safe.
We therefore ask that you continue to follow government guidance and keep your child at home, and book a test as soon as you are able. You only need to get a test if your child has the symptoms listed above. If your child has these symptoms, it is really important that you do not send them to school. The test is best done in the first 5 days of having symptoms.
The current routes for getting a test are :
• Parents book a test online at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms/coronavirus-in-children/ or by calling 119
• If parents or carers are unable to book a local slot then they can email d-ccg.cornwalldevon.urgenttesting@nhs.net explaining that the test is for a child attending a Plymouth school and they will be supported to access local testing.
If you cannot book a test immediately, we ask that you try again as the system is currently very busy and your patience is appreciated.
If you are not able to secure a test, it is important that your child remains away from school for the 10 day isolation period. As part of creating a Covid safe school, children must not return before the isolation period is over. Please work with your school to keep all children and young people safe.
You can also use the NHS 111 online coronavirus service if:
• you're worried about your symptoms
• you're not sure what to do
Call 111 if you cannot get help online.
More advice on what to do can be found here. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms/
We would like to reassure you that we are working hard to put additional local arrangements in place to boost our local testing availability until national testing capacity can be increased and we will update you as soon as the situation changes.
Judith Harwood
Service Director for Education, Participation and Skills
Education, Participation and Skills
Plymouth City Council
Windsor House,
Tavistock Road
Plymouth
PL6 5UF
T +441752305960
E judith.harwood@plymouth.gcsx.gov.uk
Hygiene & Cleaning
It is very important that we keep the school environment as clean as possible. We will be introducing a range of measures to help keep our school clean:
We will be increasing our cleaning routines to ensure that the school is cleaned during the day, this will include cleaning the toilets, corridors and high contact points such as hand railings and door handles.
We are focused upon ensuring that all children return in September to continue with their learning. The school will be implementing a Recovery Curriculum throughout the Autumn term with a focus on restoring loss of routine, structure, friendship, opportunity and freedom. Please see the attached ‘Rainbow Recovery Curriculum’ document for further information.
In the classroom
· When working in their classes, children will be discouraged from having any physical contact with each other.
· From Y2-Y6, tables will be organised into rows to avoid any close contact and children facing one another. Children in these year groups will bring their own wipeable pencil case (more information below)
· Specialist resources, such as science equipment, will be thoroughly cleaned after use before being used by another year group bubble.
Breaks
· Each bubble will have separate playtimes and lunchtimes.
· Children will be allowed to use the toilet as required during the day. Staff will be monitoring the flow of children to the toilet to ensure no crossing of bubbles.
· The children will eat their lunch in their year group bubble.
· Due to the nature of cleaning and organising lunches, children in KS2 will have their lunches later than normal. All children will have the opportunity to have a mid-morning snack during break time. Please ensure that this healthy snack is nutritious and large enough to sustain the children’s stamina until their later lunchtime. We would discourage ‘fruit winders’ etc. which would not do this.
Children in KS1 will continue to have fruit supplied by the school for break time and will have lunch at their normal time.
School Organisation
School Uniform
Pencil Cases
To support hygiene expectations, it will be necessary that ALL children from year 2 - 6 to have their own pencil case in school daily. Please can you ensure these are made of a wipeable material so that you can keep it clean, it will need to contain the following items...
2 pencils for writing, pencil sharpener, ruler, rubber, highlighter, purple gel pen or biro, coloured pencils, a small range of felt tip pens,
Year 5 and 6 will also need a black handwriting pen.
Homework wallet folder.
The children will need to start bringing these in from day 1 of the term.
Water Bottles
It is essential that children continue to bring in a water bottle each day. This will need to return home each day to be cleaned. Any water bottles left in school each day will not be used the following day until they have been returned home for cleaning. If your child leaves their water bottle in school, please send a replacement the next day if possible. The children will not have access to the water
fountains for drinking.
Reading Books
Years F/1/2 – A selection of books will be sent home on a Monday for the week, these will be collected in on a Thursday in order for them to be left in quarantine for 72 hours before being reused again the following week. (We would encourage the use of Oxford Reading Owl over the weekend.)
Years Y3-6 – Reading books will come home as normal. The school will ensure any returned books are out of circulation and quarantined for 72 hours being available for selection again.
Breaks
· Each bubble will have separate playtimes and lunchtimes.
· Children will be allowed to use the toilet as required during the day. Staff will be monitoring the flow of children to the toilet to ensure no crossing of bubbles.
· The children will eat their lunch in their year group bubble.
· Due to the nature of cleaning and organising lunches, children in KS2 will have their lunches later than normal. All children will have the opportunity to have a mid-morning snack during break time. Please ensure that this healthy snack is nutritious and large enough to sustain the children’s stamina until their later lunchtime. We would discourage ‘fruit winders’ etc. which would not do this.
Children in KS1 will continue to have fruit supplied by the school for break time and will have lunch at their normal time.