Guidance for Living with Covid

1st April 2022

Dear parents and carers

The government have produced their guidance for “Living with Covid” which includes significant changes to how we have been functioning up to now. The DFE/Ofsted is very clear that attendance is their priority and the damage done to children due to the lack of schooling is significant. We all have a part to play in keeping our school community open and well.

From today, routine Covid testing will no longer take place. The Government now advise that children and young people under 18 who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay home and avoid contact with other people. They can return to school when they no longer have a temperature, and are well enough to do so. If a Covid-19 test has been taken and a positive result is displayed, children and young people under 18 should stay home for 3 days from the onset of symptoms or the positive test (whichever came first).

A negative test is no longer required to end isolation. More details can be found here: Government sets out next steps for Living with Covid

These are the main points

Updated guidance has advised:

    • adults with the symptoms of a respiratory infection, and who have a high temperature or feel unwell, should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people until they feel well enough to resume normal activities and they no longer have a high temperature
    • children and young people who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay at home and avoid contact with other people. They can go back to school, college or childcare when they no longer have a high temperature, and they are well enough to attend
    • adults with a positive COVID-19 test result should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days, which is when they are most infectious. For children and young people aged 18 and under, the advice will be 3 days

Regular asymptomatic testing is no longer recommended in any education or childcare setting, including in SEND, alternative provision and children’s social care settings. Therefore, settings will no longer be able to order test kits

The population now has much stronger protection against COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic. This means we can begin to manage the virus like other respiratory infections, thanks to the success of the vaccination programme and access to antivirals, alongside natural immunity and increased scientific and public understanding about how to manage risk.

For education and childcare settings from Friday 1 April:

In school we will continue to ventilate classrooms, encourage good hand hygiene and take sensible steps to minimise spread and maximise attendance. Please continue to help us by keeping your child at home if they are acutely unwell; high temperature and/or spluttering cough. This of course means we will no longer know for certain who has Covid. Whatever your view on that we can only make sure that acutely unwell staff and children stay at home.

Please contact school if you have any questions

Yours sincerely

S A Pickering
Headteacher