Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to another term! Although the news remains dominated by Covid (something none of us expected to be saying at the start of 2022), it has been great to have all the students back in this week, settling back in to school life.  There have been a number of stories in the news this week about the difficulties schools are facing with staff absences; while we have seen a slight increase, please be assured that we continue to provide all students with the usual high quality educational experience, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all staff who are working so hard to ensure this is the case.  The school remains an industrious and exciting place to be, and we would not want it any other way; this will be evident from this newsletter and those that follow throughout the Spring term.

 

Since my letter at the start of the week, there has been a change to the guidance regarding lateral flow and PCR testing. I have copied this information below, should you have missed it in the news (and I would not blame you for trying to avoid the news at the moment!):

 

From 11th January in England, people who receive positive lateral flow results for COVID-19 will be required to self-isolate immediately and won’t be required to take a confirmatory PCR test. This is a temporary measure while COVID-19 rates remain high across the UK. Whilst levels of COVID-19 are high, the vast majority of people with positive LFT results can be confident that they have COVID-19.

 

Lateral flow tests are taken by people who do not have COVID-19 symptoms. Anyone who develops one of the three main COVID-19 symptoms should stay at home and self-isolate and take a PCR test. They must self-isolate if they get a positive test result, even if they have had a recent negative lateral flow test – these rules have not changed.

We had hoped, as you will note from my letter at the start of the week, that we would be able to give all students a new set of home test kits this week. Unfortunately, our delivery has been delayed but we have been assured that they will arrive next week.

I have also included with this letter details about how parents can help the school via the voluntary contribution fund; your help and support with this is hugely appreciated and, as stated in the letter, is an important part of continuing to maintain our high level of provision for all students.

 

Voluntary Contributions Fund Letter

Thank you, as always, for your support.

Best wishes,

 

Sean Furness
Headteacher