1st September 2021
PARENT COMMUNICATION 1.9.21
I hope you are all well and that you have had a lovely Summer break. We are looking forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday 7th September 2021. We were hoping for a much more normal return to school but due to the number of COVID -19 cases in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly being much higher than anywhere else in England, we have been declared an “Enhanced Response Area (ERA).” Unfortunately, this means that there will be some restrictions and extra precautionary measures in place until it is revised by Public Health and our Local Authority in 5 weeks time. The good news is that the restrictions mainly apply to the adults (you and us) and that the children will no longer be in their bubbles and will be allowed to mix with one another.
Our 5 key principles to prevent the spread of infection at school are:
1) Stay at home if ill and get tested
2) Wash your hands, catch your coughs
3) Clean and ventilate
4) Promote routine asymptomatic testing (twice weekly, staff only)
5) Identification of close contacts (mainly NHS Test and Trace)
The additional measures due to being in an ERA are; limited access to school for visitors and parents, outdoor gatherings such as whole school assemblies, additional learning outside, improved ventilation indoors, enhanced cleaning. Staff are advised to wear face coverings when in shared staff areas. In order to limit crowding on the school premises, we ask that only parents of early years and key stage one children enter the playground to drop off their children. If you are on the playground please keep a safe distance from other adults. Parents of key stage 2 children (years 3-6) are to drop their children at the gate and the children can go straight to their classroom where they will be met by their teacher or TA. We are only responsible for KS2 children from 0845 and Early/Years and KS1 children (unless siblings) from 0900. Please do not drop them alone before this. Any payments should continue to be made via Parent Pay. For uniform requirements, please ring the school and place your order with the school secretaries, Anita (Germoe) and Lauren (Boskenwyn). The items will then be sent home with your child and you will pay via Parent Pay. School lunches will continue to be paid via Parent Pay. The above will be in place in order to maximise the number of children in face to face education and avoid any further disruption to learning and mental health and wellbeing so please help us to adhere.
A major difference to the new term is that those who are fully vaccinated and children under 18 years and 6 months will no longer need to isolate if they have been in close contact with a positive case. NHS Test and Trace are now dealing with contact tracing and not school. We may however, ask you a few questions regarding your contacts if we have an outbreak. In the case of an outbreak, measures will be further enhanced but attendance restrictions will be a last resort. We do encourage you, if not already vaccinated, to get vaccinated. You are less likely to catch Covid-19, become severely ill if you do and less likely to spread it to others. If you are fully vaccinated, you should still adhere to all public health recommended measures of hands, face, space and fresh air. You will still have to isolate of you develop symptoms and order a PCR test. If you have been in close contact with a positive case but are not showing symptoms and are awaiting a PCR then please limit close contact with others and wear a face covering at school pick ups whilst waiting for your PCR result. The isolation period remains at 10 days from onset of symptoms.
The 3 main symptoms of Covid-19 remain the same; fever, persistent cough, loss of smell/taste. If you or your child have these then you should stay at home, order a PCR test via 119 and isolate until your PCR test results come back. Those exempt from isolation can attend school only if they are not displaying symptoms. If your child have a fever and sore throat, runny nose and wheezing then these may be an influenza like illness (ILI) or something more acute and they should remain at home until acute symptoms resolve. If these symptoms develop into a cough, high temperature and loss of taste/smell then you should order a PCR test. If the test is negative they should remain at home until acute symptoms are resolved then return to school. If they do not have any acute symptoms or ILI and have a runny nose, irritable cough then they can still attend school if they are well enough to.
Lots of information to take in and not quite how we would have wanted to start the new term but we will do what it takes to keep our children, you and our staff safe and to ensure there are no disruptions to learning and mental health and wellbeing.
We look forward to seeing you all soon
Best wishes, take care and stay safe
Paula Blackburn
Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by online service providers in order to (for example) make their websites or services work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.
Cookies set by the website owner or service provider (in this case, eSchools) are called “first party cookies”. Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called “third party cookies”. Third party cookies enable third party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website or service you are using (such as advertising, interactive content and analytics). The third parties that set these third party cookies can recognise your computer both when it visits the website or service in question and also when it visits certain other websites or services.
We use first party and third party cookies for several reasons. Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our Services to operate, and we refer to these as “essential” cookies. Other cookies enable us and the third parties we work with to track and target the interests of visitors to our Services, and we refer to these as “advertising” or “analytical” cookies. For example, the embedding of YouTube and Vimeo videos, as added by individual schools, will require “advertising” cookies to be enabled in order to successfully play them. Schools that, for example, opt to track visitor data using Google Analytics will require “analytical” cookies to be enabled in order to do so. These third party cookies are used to tailor content and information that we may send or display to you and otherwise personalise your experience while interacting with our Services and to otherwise improve the functionality of the Services we provide. We also enable schools to employ cookies and similar tracking technologies in connection with their use of our Services in order to allow them to track visitors to and interactions with their school website.
eSchools websites may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us and to enrich your user experience. The cookies differ depending on the information. You can adapt your cookie preferences, although please note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer. We will not, without your express consent, supply your personal information to any third party for the purpose of their or any other third party's direct marketing.
Our Services allows schools to embed code which may potentially contain cookies. Please note embedded content, if displayed on one of our websites, has been added by the school and not by eSchools. The embedded content added by the school may require additional cookies or tracking technologies to be enabled in order to function.
You have the right to decide whether to accept or reject cookies. Be aware that cookie preferences are set on a per device basis; therefore you may need to set your preferences on each device you use.
Initial cookie pop-up banner: You can exercise preferences about what cookies are served on our Websites by selecting your preference from this modal which appears upon visiting an eSchools website/login screen and dashboard. You can also change your cookie preferences by clicking on the link on the footer of any page. The banner will reappear annually (August 31st to coincide with the academic year) to confirm your settings.
Browser Controls: You can set or amend your web browser controls to accept or refuse cookies. If you choose to reject cookies, you may still use our Websites though your access to some functionality and areas of our Websites may be restricted. As the means by which you can refuse cookies through your web browser controls vary from browser-to-browser, you should visit your browser’s help menu for more information.
Disabling Most Interest Based Advertising: Most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of Interest Based Advertising. We will not, without your express consent, supply your personal information to any third party for the purpose of their or any other third party's direct marketing. If you would like to find out more information, please visit aboutads.info/choices or youronlinechoices.com.
Mobile Advertising: You can opt out of having your mobile advertising identifiers used for certain types of Interest Based Advertising, by accessing the settings on your Apple or Android mobile device and following the most recent published instructions. We will not, without your express consent, supply your personal information to any third party for the purpose of their or any other third party's direct marketing.
We may update this Cookie Statement from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. Please therefore re-visit this Cookie Statement regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies. The date at the bottom of this Cookie Statement indicates when it was last updated.
If you have any questions about our use of cookies or other technologies, please email us at support@.eschools.co.uk.