COVID-19 Guidance Update 22/02/2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

Following last night’s announcement by the Prime Minister, I wanted to update you on what the new COVID guidance means for students and adults in school. In reality there will be little practical change on a day to day basis.

From today, the requirement for twice weekly asymptomatic LFD testing has ended. Therefore, schools will no longer be provided with test kits to distribute to students. However, if a student feels unwell, and/or has any of the main symptoms, they should still take a COVID test through the national processes.

From Thursday, the government has removed the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test result. However, the government still advises that children and adults should stay at home and avoid contact for a minimum of 5 days and until they have received 2 negative test results, or have passed day 10, as per the current regulations. This is what we would ask all students and adults at Sewell Park Academy to continue to do. As of Thursday, there is also no longer a requirement for close contacts to test daily for 7 days.

For any student who is absent from school, they will still be able to access education through our remote curriculum, which runs parallel to our in school curriculum. Students can continue to access this through Google Classroom.

In regards to other COVID measures which are in school, such as ventilation for classrooms, as per the government guidance, these will continue. Where some blocks of the school are colder due to this, such as Technology and Science, at the present time coats may continue to be worn, however, this is solely at the discretion of the classroom teacher and based on the conditions.

The government has indicated that these plans will be in place until 1st April, when further guidance regarding further changes, including the availability of tests, will be announced. As soon as there are changes, or updates, including the reintroduction of measures locally if required, we will continue to update you.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Best wishes,

David Day

Headteacher