At St. Vincent’s we continue to do all we can to keep our school family safe. This is a shared effort and we are vey grateful to all our families for your continued support, particularly with regard to testing any child displaying symptoms of coronavirus or having been in close contact with a positive case.
As a reminder, the main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are:
- a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
- a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
- a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal
On 30th June 2021 Public Health England advised schools in Westminster to be vigilant for the symptoms of the Delta variant:
- headache
- sore throat
- runny nose
These symptoms present as a common cold so schools have been advised to have a low threshold of suspicion for cases. Please see the letter from Public Health here.
To protect others, please do not send your child to school if they have any of these symptoms. Get a PCR test to check if you or your child has coronavirus and stay at home until you get your result.
If your child is not displaying the above symptoms, but is unwell for example with an upset tummy, please keep them home, as always so they can recover and not pass this onto others.
As you will be aware, the Prime Minister made an announcement at the weekend regarding the new Omicron variant of Covid.
The following day, the Department for Education issued new guidance for schools advising that face coverings should be worn in communal areas by all staff and visitors. Thank you for your support with this.
We have updated our risk assessment and we are in the process of reviewing all our plans for the next three weeks, including restricting visitors to the building. We will send separate emails about the different Christmas events planned in advance of them happening.
The actions the school will take in response to cases will vary depending on the number. Please see our Covid Outbreak Management Plan here.
If you have any questions or concerns please speak to Miss Coleman, Mrs Duffy or Miss Carruthers. We are here to support you.