Happy New Year 2022

Happy New Year 2022!

We are really looking forward to welcoming everyone back to school tomorrow on Wednesday 5th January 2022.

Following a meeting I attended on Monday, with Doncaster Public Health and Doncaster Local Authority, I would like to share with you the key headlines and share our changes to our risk assessment with you:

Omicron is now the dominant variant of Covid19 in Doncaster.

Doncaster cases are at an all-time high.

As a result of the above, we are doing everything we can to keep us all as safe as we can and I have detailed more information below:

1. We know many of you have been testing regularly over the Christmas period. Please could we ask that you check that your child is negative for Covid on an LFT test at home, before returning to school on Wednesday, wherever possible . Our staff are continuing to test twice a week too.  
2. Please continue to wear masks when you enter the school grounds – especially at the busier pick off and drop off times. Masks are mandatory in the reception area and communal areas in school and for any necessary meetings that take place in school.  
3. We know it is difficult at the busy pick up and drop off times at school, but please could we ask that everyone practises social distancing and leave the school grounds as soon as possible.  
4. We are keeping the children in year group bubbles wherever possible and we are moving all of our assemblies onto TEAMS for the immediate future. If necessary, we are being encouraged to mix groups of children to provide cover if required, but this will be a last resort in our school.  
5. We are hoping to continue with our parent sessions as these are planned to take place outside, however these decisions will be made closer to the date of the individual events.  
6. We have several school visits and visitors planned for this term, however decisions as to whether these go ahead will be made on a case by case basis and will be made closer to the date of the individual events.  
7. If your child/children presents with any one of the 3 original symptoms of Covid they are to go for a PCR test and may return to school immediately when they receive a negative test result.

- New continuous cough - this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or three or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if the person usually has a cough, it may be worse than usual)

- Fever (temperature of 37.8°C or higher) – the individual will also feel hot to touch on their chest or back

- A loss or change to sense of smell or taste – this means the person has noticed they cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal.

8. If your child/ children tests positive for Covid19, they need to isolate for at least 7 days from the start of symptoms or from the test date if asymptomatic, but if they receive two negative LFT tests on day 6 and day 7 – taken 24 hours apart (or 2 consecutive days thereafter) and they do not have a temperature, they can return to school after receiving the second negative LFT test result. If the LFTs return positive on day 6. 7, 8, 9 and 10 they can return to school after 10 days of isolation.  
9. If a household member tests positive tests positive, the guidance now states that the other members of the household can attend school as long as they take LFT tests for 7 days and have a negative result on them. A PCR is no longer required officially but we appreciate that many of you would prefer to do this to ensure the rest of your family and friends remain safe, and we support this.  
10. If we have several staff who are unable to attend work in a specific class or year group, we may have to close a class and learning will be provided remotely on Google Classroom, our online learning platform. This will always be a last resort for our school, as we would try and exhaust all possibilities of covering the class before we made this decision.

Thank you for taking the time to read the information above - we wish to keep everyone as safe and as healthy as possible, and all your support is greatly appreciated.

See you all tomorrow!

Mrs Train