Return to School Arrangements – January 2022

Dear parent/carer,

Re. Return to School Arrangements – January 2022

Following my Headteacher’s letter sent earlier this week, I write to you with further details regarding the staggered return to school for students in January. The staggered return of year groups will allow for the school to complete on-site lateral flow testing for students and for the safe return to school.

Covid-19 Lateral Flow Testing Programme

The Covid-19 lateral flow device testing programme in school is completely optional for students.

Students should come to school as normal on their allocated return to school day (see schedule below). Students will be invited to complete a lateral flow test during the school day. The test will be conducted by the student, under the supervision of trained staff, and results will be sent to the contact details that the school currently holds on the system.

If you have opted out of testing for your child, your child will not be offered the test. If your child decides on the day that they do not want the test, they will not need to participate. Your child should arrive in school on their scheduled return date, regardless if they will be participating in testing or not.

If your child develops any Covid-like symptoms, they must not attend school. Please contact the school’s attendance officer Ms Yeasmin, to advise her of your child’s absence. She will advise you of the appropriate steps to take.

Staggered Return to School

From the 4^th January 2022, students are expected to follow their normal school timetable. For some year groups this will mean following their lessons virtually via Google Classroom. Please see the table below to find out what the return to school for your child’s year group will be.

Parents and families are reminded about safeguarding procedures for online lessons, as detailed in the school’s safeguarding addendum. This can be found on the school website – https://www.stepneyallsaints.school/our-school/policiesprocedures-and-premium-information/policies/.

Home Testing

Students are able to collect home test kits from their form tutor and encouraged to continue testing at least twice a week over the Christmas period. We recommend that tests are taken on a Monday morning and Thursday morning. The following NHS video guidance is useaful in explaining how to conduct the test at home – https://youtu.be/S9XR8RZxKNo.

You are required the report the result of home lateral tests using the Covid-19 test result website (https://www.gov.uk/report-covid19-result), regardless if the test result is positive, negative or void.

Incident Reporting

It is very unlikely, but if any clinical or non-clinical issues occur with the home-testing kits, this must be reported.

Examples of clinical issues are a swab breaking in the mouth, bleeding, allergic reaction on using the test kit etc. Non-clinical issues would be for example a missing item for a test kit.

Any clinical incidents which have led or has potential for harm, should be reported on https://coronavirusyellowcard.mhra.gov.uk. This is not for seeking immediate medical care. Medical care should be sought through the usual route of contacting 111 or 999.

For non-clinical issues, participants are advised to report any issued to 119, and to inform the school.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Woods

Headteacher

• Download Return to school letter to parents - Jan 2022