6 March 2020

Coronavirus update for parents, carers and staff

The health, safety and well-being of our children and staff are our top priorities. With the recently elevated discussion regarding the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the news, we want to take a moment to reinforce preventive safety measures and reference our process and communications.

Current guidance from the Department for Education states that no school should close in response to a suspected (or confirmed) COVID-19 case unless advised to do by Public Health England.

North Somerset Council, Public Health England, the Regional Schools Commissioner and all of our Extend Learning Academies Network schools are closely monitoring the situation and making the necessary preparations in case the COVID-19 becomes more prevalent in our community. For now, there have been no indications of a coronavirus outbreak, but we are aware that could change as time goes on.        

We all play a role in reducing the likelihood of a coronavirus outbreak in our school community. We encourage everyone to practice good habits, including:

• Wash your hands regularly, especially after using the restroom and before preparing or consuming food. Wash for 20 seconds, using soap and hot water. Be sure to also wash your fingertips.
• Avoid coughing or sneezing into your hands or in the air. Always try to cough or sneeze into a tissue, and then throw the tissue away. If you don’t have a tissue, cough/sneeze into your arm.
• As much as you can, avoid touching your eyes, mouth and nose. Reduce physical hand contact with others (high fives, first bumps, etc.).
• We ask you to maintain sensible monitoring of your child and please keep them home from school if they are displaying symptoms and have been to a country or area with a high risk of coronavirus or have been in close contact with someone with coronavirus. Allow them some time to feel better so that they do not risk infecting others. Children need to be fever-free for 24 hours before returning to class after any illness. Keeping children home when they are unwell is critical to prevention.  

We will continue to communicate with you in the days and weeks to come. It is possible that we may need to cancel some classes if it appears the coronavirus has affected our community in a significant way. However we are preparing for this and will update as necessary.

Please be assured we are taking any steps we can to protect everyone’s health and wellbeing. Please ensure your emergency contact details are up to date with the school office in case they need to contact you. We are working to ensure all schools have adequate hand soap and/or sanitiser in line with NHS and Public Health England guidelines.

The Department for Education (DfE) has set up a coronavirus helpline: 0800 046 8687. It should be able to answer any questions you might have.

Parents can use the helpline too. NHS 111 can help if you have an urgent medical problem and you’re not sure what to do.

To get help from NHS 111, you can:

• go to 111.nhs.uk (for people aged 5 and over only)
• call 111  NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If you have difficulties communicating or hearing, you can:

• call 18001 111 on a textphone
• use the NHS 111 British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter service if you’re deaf and want to use the phone service

Thank you