Schools have very thorough measures in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19. These measures have worked well and manage to successfully limit the further spread of coronavirus in schools in North Yorkshire.
If your child starts to show symptoms of covid 19 whilst they are in school this is what we will do;
♦ Call you as parents/carers to collect your child and take them home. We will advise you that all household members will need to isolate from that point and that you should book a test for your child.
♦ While your child is waiting to be collected they will be in an isolated room with a window open for ventilation.
♦ Staff caring for your child during this time will try to maintain 2 metre distancing. If this is not possible, for example with a young child, they will wear appropriate PPE – this is likely to be an apron, face mask and gloves.
♦ We will ask you to keep us informed of the test result so that if the result is positive they can take steps to help keep others safe.
If there is a positive case of covid 19 in our school the following will happen;
♦ The headteacher will notify the national and local public health team.
♦ All close contacts of the positive case will be identified and asked to self-isolate – a standard letter from your school will be sent to all close contacts, containing all the information they need to understand what they and their household should do.
♦ In some circumstances a school may initially need to ask a larger number of pupils to self-isolate as a precaution, whilst they work with public health to confirm all of the close contacts. Once this has been confirmed some students may be able to return to school.
Decisions on identifying close contacts and closing classes/year groups/whole schools;
♦ Every case that occurs in schools is different and the headteacher will work closely with public health to make sure they have identified all possible close contacts of a positive case within the guidance given.
♦ Because each case is looked at individually, you can be sure that children and staff are not asked to self-isolate without a good reason. The number of people classed as ‘close contacts’ of a positive case will be different for every case dependent on the activities of the person who has tested positive in the 48 hours prior to symptoms starting.
♦ In some circumstances schools may need to close classes, year groups or, in extreme cases, the whole school because of a lack of appropriate staff or other organisational reasons.