School will reopen to all students on Monday 6th September 2021.
The front gate will close at 8:40am and school finishes at 3:15pm
This is a short summary of the Covid-19 safety measures information that we sent out to all families last week. We will return immediately to a full five lessons per day timetable with the right teachers in the right classrooms.
If your child is unwell
If your child is unwell in any way, they should not come to school. If you need to discuss any symptoms that your child or other household member may be experiencing please contact us on Nocv19@hccs.info and we will respond appropriately. If a child becomes unwell during the school day, we will initially look after them in the usual way and parents will be contacted to pick them up ASAP.
Face coverings
Based on our current assessment of the risks, we believe that wearing masks inside of school buildings will help us to maintain a safe environment. Whilst not being compulsory, face coverings will be strongly encouraged within school buildings. We hope that for the first two weeks, parents will help us by encouraging students to wear face coverings. Please ask your child to bring a face mask with them to school.
Lateral Flow Testing (LFT) for students and staff
Regular twice weekly testing using LFT tests is seen as the most important part of the new strategy for dealing with Covid-19 in schools. We are therefore asking all parents to help us to maintain this essential safety measure. With just a few days to go before school reopens, please ensure that your child has undertaken at least one LFT test this weekend before returning to school on Monday.
We will again be running supervised self testing refreshers over the first week back at school. Taking part in testing is not compulsory but is very much encouraged. For parents of students in Year 7 who wish their child to participate, the online consent form is available here and needs to be completed before Monday morning please. Twice weekly self testing is compulsory for all staff. No visitors will be allowed to enter the school buildings without confirmation of a negative test result.
If you test positive using an LFT test
Students and staff who test positive will need to stay home, self isolate and book a PCR test. Please let school know by email to Nocv19@hccs.info From this point, you should follow the instructions from the NHS Test and Trace service. Please do not contact the school to ask for contact details for other children.
New rules on isolation for close contacts of people with Covid-19
From 16th August 2021, those people aged under the age of 18 years and six months or who have been double vaccinated, do not automatically need to self isolate if they have been in close contact with someone who has Covid-19 and do not themselves have any symptoms. Close contacts, including members of the same household, should arrange to have a PCR test.
Responsibility for contact tracing has switched from schools to the NHS Test and Trace service. However, we believe that parents should know quickly if their child has been in very close contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19. If we identify your child as a very close contact, we will ask you to arrange for them to have a PCR test and to wait for the result before coming into school. Given the quick turnaround of PCR tests this is unlikely to impact for more than a day and students will continue to access learning via their Google classroom account. We very much hope that parents will work with us on these simple safety measures which go beyond the minimum recommendations for schools.
Vaccinations
Vaccination has now been available for 16 to 18 year olds for a few weeks and we are aware that many of our students have taken advantage of this. Over the coming months, we will encourage students to access vaccines as they become eligible. This is particularly important in year groups 11, 12 and 13.
The mass vaccination centre at Alderley Park is open to 16/17 year olds. They are open daily from 8:30-18:00 and would welcome our students. There is a list of all the other centres open to 16/17 year olds via the NHS website at:
For issues relating to COVID-19 and safety measures in our school, including advice and information please contact us by email at: Nocv19@hccs.info