Covid 19 virus - 16. 03 2020

Monday, 16 March 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

RE – COVID19 Additional school actions.

As announced by the Prime Minister last week, there will NOT be a blanket closure of schools in England.

However, some very clear advice has been issued.

Pupils should attend school unless they feel unwell – if your child has any of the following symptoms they should remain at home for 7 days:

a new, continuous cough and/or
a temperature (37.8 degrees and above)

We will keep you up to date with any changes to the current situation via text message and our website.

At Reedley, we are working through a staged and sensible risk assessment. The following measures are in place from 16^th March 2020.

Additional cleaning programme in place
Additional access to hand hygiene on entrance to classrooms and around the school building is in place.
Educational – hand washing demonstrations and practice – using government resources.
We will use screening measures (thermometer) if we are concerned about a high temperature
A number of school events, where staff and children will be mixing with children and staff from other schools, have been postponed or cancelled.
These include: any after school sporting fixtures and some trips.
Specifically:

- Netball Competition on 16^th March at Pendle Vale has been cancelled

- Resilience Project for some Year 5 children on Tuesday 17^th March has been cancelled

- Times Table Final on 26^th March has been postponed and will be rescheduled in the Summer term.

- Easter School for Y6 is cancelled.

- Spelling Bee semi-final is postponed until after Easter.

- Parent/carer meetings with your child’s teachers – postponed until after Easter. You can request a phone call from your child’s teacher if you have concerns that you want to discuss. Interim reports will be sent home on 27^th March.

At this moment in time the Y6 trip to Hothersall Lodge will go-ahead as planned. Hothersall have issued a statement stating that they are carrying out a rigorous cleaning regime. Our children and staff will be working alongside each other, just as they would if they were in school and not with children from other schools, they will reinforce good hygiene regimes and have additional hand-wash stations throughout the centre. If anything changes between now and next week, the parents of the children going on the trip will be informed. Reedley is the only school staying over at the centre during this period of time.
After-school clubs will go ahead as normal for the week beginning 16^th March and 23^rd March. There are no clubs in the week beginning 30^th March.

We will assess the situation on an on-going basis and report back to you if there are any changes and regarding any new dates for the postponed sessions. There are further trips planned from the end of April onwards and decisions on these will be made after the Easter period.

What we need parents/carers to do

If you’ve recently changed your contact details, please inform the school office as soon as possible
Come and collect your child straight away, if we ask you to (we’ll contact you if they become ill with either a temperature or a new, continuous cough)
Check that your child has access to their online learning accounts (Bug Club, MyMaths, Times Tables Rock Stars Y2 – Y6, Spag.com Y2 – Y6 only), and let us know if there are any issues, so we can make sure we are well prepared for remote learning if the school does need to close at some point.
Make sure that you are following all health and hygiene rules in your own home in order to support the measures we are taking in school.

If you have any questions

Please consult :

NHS, if you want to know more about the symptoms of coronavirus. If you think you or your child may have the symptoms, use NHS 111 online if at all possible before calling 111

Absence from school - how it will be recorded

We have liaised with the school attendance officer, who has provided the following guidance regarding any school absences.

If a child has symptoms (eg high temperature and a new, persistent cough) and you are told to isolate them for 7 days – then this will be authorised for the five days that they miss from school. You must review this with 111 staff after 7 days. You must notify school of this situation throughout.

If you are isolating your child for any other reason, then you must call school and explain the circumstances. Our attendance office has the authority to authorise some of these absences, depending on the reasons given, but not all may be approved.

If you keep your child off school as a precaution and there are no symptoms, then the absence may be recorded as unauthorised.

Contingency Plan

The Chair of Governors will:

liaise with the Headteacher to consider the reasons for possible school closure and support the Headteacher in decision-making;
follow the instruction, advice or guidance of the Local Authority, Government, Public Health England, NHS or other relevant agency with regard to school closure; and
liaise with the Headteacher by telephone or email, to continually assess risk and respond to developing situations.

The Headteacher will:

with the Chair of Governors, if needed, take the decision to close the school based on the assessment of the risk of staying open, or in response to an instruction, advice or guidance from local or central government
notify the local authority of the closure via the School Calendar on the Lancashire Schools’ Portal
notify parents/carers if there is cause to close the school and will continue to liaise with updates throughout any period of school closure
keep parents/carers up to date with any information about whether trips and events will continue or be cancelled. These can be viewed on the school website www.reedley.lancs.sch.uk

We are taking the following measures to delay the spread of the virus, we know hope that you support us and understand why we have to take these measures, given that the circumstances are ever changing and are extremely serious.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Sarah Bell

Headteacher