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Dear Parents

COVID-19 

You are now becoming familiar with the attached message from Public Health UK.  I am obliged to send this home whenever a positive case of COVID 19 is confirmed within one of our school population.  Can I please ask that you continue to refresh your mind of the key information within the letter, as to how to help prevent the spread of the virus.

Additionally, I would also like to provide the following points of clarification:

  • Thanks to the preventative action taken by families when one of their household start to display symptoms and the increasing strictness with which everyone is following the guidance, we have to date managed to avoid needing to send whole Year Groups home from school.  The vast majority of cases at Highams Park School have come to light, whilst a student has been in isolation and away from school as a result of another family member’s ill health.  Thank you for your ongoing vigilance in this matter.
  • As you are aware every case that occurs we report to Public Health and the London Coronavirus Response Cell.  They have asked me to pass on the following information to you with regards to a scenario that we have experienced here at Highams Park School:

“Once a person has tested positive for coronavirus they are not advised to test again for 90-days unless they develop new symptoms of coronavirus within this time frame. This is because coronavirus can sometimes still be picked up by the PCR test for up-to six weeks after the initial infection, and when the person is no longer infectious. If students complete their isolation period but remain unwell, they do not need to re-test but should remain at home until they have been without fever for 48 hours and feel well enough to return to activities of daily living.”

  • Please use this email as an opportunity to remind your children of the necessity for them to wear their face masks upon leaving school.  We will remind them of the necessity for them whilst at school but is it frustrating for members of the public to see groups of students making their way home from school, in close proximity to one another and without their face masks on.
  • Finally, a note of explanation for the students.  When students are sent home from school because they have been identified as a “close contact” of someone who has tested positive, this should not trigger alarm for other students who have been “in contact” with those being sent home. 

Student question: “One of my friends has been sent home, and I was in the same class as them yesterday.  Do I need to go home as well?” 

School Answer: “No, you are considered to be a secondary contact and there is no need for you to isolate unless you develop symptoms yourself.  Your friend has only been sent home as a precaution.  They have not had symptoms or a positive test themselves, so to the best of our knowledge have not got anything to pass on to you.”

Many thanks for your ongoing support.  I hope these points of clarification are helpful.

Yours faithfully

Phil Grundy

Principal

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