Dear Parents/Carers,
I just wanted to write a quick post briefly explaining the process in which schools are asked to go through with regards to C-19 symptoms and testing.
When a member of staff/pupil demonstrates symptoms for C-19, they are asked to go for a C-19 test, however, at that point the bubble does not have to close.
When a member of staff/pupils is confirmed as being positive for C-19, based on Public Health England Guidance, we are asked to identify who the individual has had close contact with and this includes answering the following questions:
Anyone who has had any of the following types of contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19:
- face-to-face contact including being coughed on or having a face-to-face conversation within one metre
- been within one metre for one minute or longer without face-to-face contact
- been within 2 metres of someone for more than 15 minutes (either as a one-off contact, or added up together over one day)
In school, we have asked the adults in each bubble to restrict the contact in which they have with pupils so that they are having close contact with only a few pupils, in particular for support staff, whereby they tend to sit with 1 or 2 pupils or a table of pupils, however, this does prove more difficult for the Teacher. This is to help us to minimise disruption for pupils and parents, as we can better identify those who have had close contact with the positive case.
Public Health England do not class close contact as the whole of the bubble but only those that are outlined as being a close contact based on the guidance above.
Therefore, when we closed our first bubble this term, we only asked a few children within that bubble to isolate as the member of staff shared they had only had close contact with a table of pupils. However, once a further member of staff tested positive within the same bubble, we asked the same questions and that member of staff shared that they believed that they had close contact with the whole bubble at some point in the previous 48 hours, therefore, we then extended the isolation to the whole bubble. This bubble has now returned to school, the only confirmed cases were the three adults working within this bubble and no further confirmed cases reported.
Regarding the closing of bubbles and isolation, it has to be done on a case by case basis, for example, when we had our first confirmed cases week commencing 18th January, we did as the PHE guidance states as outlined above, which meant only a few pupils/staff were asked to isolate and not the whole bubble initially. However, last week, when we had a confirmed case in Year 2, in light of having a cluster of cases within school, to ensure we were doing everything in which we could to prevent further cases arising, we decided to take the precautionary measure of closing the two Year 2 classes.
Now that we have introduced lateral flow testing for staff, we have an additional layer to consider. If a member of staff tests positive on their LFT on a Sunday or Wednesday, they are asked to isolate and book for a ‘real’ test (PCR) test as soon as they can. We will inform you of this result on that day and ask the children to isolate until we have a confirmed result.
If the member of staff’s ‘real’ test comes back as positive they isolate as does the rest of the bubble for 10 days and if it comes back negative, the bubble can return to school
I would like to assure parents that we are ensuring that we follow guidance provided from Public Health England and although I know at times, parents may be confused by the guidance, it’s the guidance we are asked to follow at this time.
It’s such a difficult time for everyone and together we are doing a great job.
Thank you for your continued support and understanding,
Miss Laing