St Anne's Catholic School St Anne's Catholic School

16th March 2020

St Anne's Catholic School

Dear Parent,

We have not had any suspected or confirmed cases of coronavirus at St Anne’s so far. If your child is well, there is no reason to be off school.

As I am sure you are aware, the government’s national approach to dealing with the coronavirus outbreak has moved from the “containment” stage to the “delay” stage. As such, the advice for the general public, including schools, has also changed.

What to do if your child falls ill at home.

The most common symptoms of coronavirus are recent onset of a new continuous cough or a high temperature. For most people, these symptoms will be mild. If your child has symptoms of coronavirus infection, however mild, please do the following:

Keep them at home and do not send them to school for 7 days from the first day of the symptoms.
Contact the school and let us know that they have these symptoms, and that they will be off for 7 days. This will help us plan.
The advice from Public Health England, which we urge you to follow, is that they should not leave their house for 7 days from when their symptoms started. If you want more information about what to do if your child falls unwell with symptoms, click here to read the government’s advice.
After 7 days, if your child feels better and no longer has a high temperature, they can return to school. If they have not had any signs of improvement and you have not already sought medical advice, you should contact NHS 111 online at 111.nhs.uk. If you have no internet access, you should call NHS 111. A cough may persist for several weeks in some people, despite the coronavirus infection having cleared. A persistent cough alone does not mean your child must continue to self-isolate for more than 7 days.

What to do if your child falls ill at school.

If a child presents these symptoms at school, we will contact you immediately so they can be collected and taken home to start their 7 days.

What to do if your child is well and worried.

It is inevitable there will be some anxiety around this, which is not helped by the media and social media. If your child is hesitant about coming to school, please explain to them that we have enhanced our daily cleaning regime beyond what is advised, that we have no cases, and that we are following all public health advice. If you child is well, there is no reason to be off school. Unless they are ill, we have no choice but to mark absence as unauthorised.

What about school trips and activities?

The government has said that school trips abroad are to be cancelled. We have had no advice to cancel any other activities, including the upcoming production of Sister Act! We have a school trip planned to Austria at Easter. Our tour organisers are getting advice on next steps but say it is currently unlikely to go ahead unless the advice from government changes in the near future. We will contact relevant families about this in more detail as soon as we have it. We are as disappointed as, no doubt, you are but understand the need to follow the advice we are given to protect the general public.

What if someone at St Anne’s gets coronavirus? Will you shut? What about my child’s learning?

At some point, it is possible that someone in the school community will have a confirmed case of coronavirus. If this happens, we will follow the advice from Public Health England for educational settings which can be found here if you are interested in seeing it. It is not automatic that a school closes if someone from the school has a confirmed case. However, we have already begun to look into how we would provide pupils with work in the event of school closure using Microsoft Teams and our website. Training for staff has begun and will continue next week. We will give more information to parents once we are ready to roll it out. We intend to use this as our online learning platform long term anyway, so this is an opportunity to get the ball rolling.

I have other questions and want advice. Where do I go?

If you have any questions or are not sure what any of this means, please contact the school at info@st-annes.uk.com so we can answer your question. If you want more information about what to do if your child falls unwell with symptoms, click here to read the government’s advice.

Thanks very much for your continued support of the school. We will do everything we can to ensure we support the national effort to delay the spread of the virus while minimising the disruption to your child’s education. Your support with following the steps above will much welcomed.

Best regards

_______________________________

James Rouse

Headteacher