IMPORTANT: Updates on School Events and COVID-19

Cancellations of School Events:

In light of the new guidance that came out, please note that the following events are cancelled with immediate effect:

  • Wednesday 18th March – Y3 Malham Parents Evening
  • Fridays (all before Easter) – swimming lessons
  • Wednesday 25th March – Y2 and Y6 SATS Parents Evenings
  • Wednesday 2nd April – Easter Cake Baking Competition

 

New Guidance for Households with Symptoms:

Yesterday, the Government introduced new guidance on whole household isolation in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

 

WE POLITELY ASK ALL OF OUR FAMILIES TO STRICTLY ADHERE TO THIS GUIDANCE:

 

  • If you live alone and you have symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19), however mild, stay at home for 7 days from when your symptoms started

 

  • If you live with others and you or another member of the household have symptoms of coronavirus, then all household members must stay at home and not leave the house for 14 days. The 14-day period starts from the day when the first person in the house became ill. It is likely that people living within a household will infect each other or be infected already. Staying at home for 14 days will greatly reduce the overall amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community

 

  • For anyone in the household who starts displaying symptoms, they need to stay at home for 7 days from when the symptoms appeared, regardless of what day they are on in the original 14-day isolation period.

 

The symptoms are:

 

  • A high temperature (37.8 degrees and above)

  • A new, continuous cough

 

 

The full stay at home guidance for households with these symptoms can be found here:

 

 

If your child remains at home, either through illness or isolation due to someone in the household having the symptoms, then please look here in the first instance, for educational resources to try at home.

 

Websites

 

As this is an ever-changing situation, we hope to have some more information about school work at home in the next few days. Please bear with us whilst we put things into place.

 

The Prime Minister’s statement from Monday 16 March can be found here:

 

Attendance Information:

  • Where a pupil cannot attend school due to illness, as would normally happen, the pupil will be recorded as absent (ill) in the attendance register and the school will authorise the absence.

 

  • Where a pupil is in self-isolation, in accordance with latest information and advice from Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England, the pupil should be recorded as unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances in the attendance register.

 

  • Where a pupil does not attend school and is not self-isolating, the pupil will be marked as absent. This being said, we will be pragmatic where a pupil is not able to attend because of an underlying health condition that means they, or a family member in their household, are particularly vulnerable to coronavirus (COVID-19).

 

CHILDREN WITH ASTHMA

 

Please visit 

https://www.asthma.org.uk/advice/triggers/coronavirus-covid-19/

 

This link provides some more information and advice about children with Asthma and COVID-19. Please note that having severe asthma is likely to put you at higher risk of complications from COVID-19. The NHS will contact you from the 23rd March to tell you what to do if you are in this higher-risk group. For now, you should follow the advice above, and try to be extra careful about avoiding unnecessary contact with other people.

 

If your child has asthma, please ensure that any inhalers in school are in date, thanks.

 

Handwashing advice

 

The most important thing individuals can do to protect themselves is to wash their hands more often, for at least 20 seconds, with soap and water. Public Health England recommends that in addition to handwashing before eating, and after coughing and sneezing, everyone should also wash hands after using toilets and travelling on public transport.

 

Watch this short NHS film for guidance:

 

 

 

Department for Education coronavirus helpline

 

The Department for Education coronavirus helpline is available to answer questions about COVID-19 relating to education and children’s social care. Staff, parents and young people can contact this helpline as follows:

 

Phone: 0800 046 8687
Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday), 10am to 4pm (Saturday to Sunday)

 

Please note, we are currently experiencing high volumes of calls. We appreciate your patience at this time and apologise for any wait that you may experience. To ensure that we answer your calls as quickly as possible, we have now extended our opening hours to cover weekends and are increasing the number of call handlers available to answer your calls.

 

Where to find the latest information

 

Updates on COVID-19: