A Herefordshire school has brought in new measures to try and limit the spread of COVID-19, following an increase in the number of cases being recorded.
The Queen Elizabeth High School in Bromyard sent the following letter to parents earlier this week:
“There have been a small number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the school, and for Year 9 the threshold of 10% positive PCR’s within a 10 day window has now been reached. This means we must add additional layers of mitigations to the ones we have already used since September.
“In addition to our hand hygiene regime, face coverings on school transport, ventilation opportunities maximised, the twice weekly lateral flow programme and strong cleaning regime, we will from tomorrow Wednesday 17th November bring in the following additional measures for a short period to keep infections as low as we can.
Face coverings will be required from Wednesday 17th November in corridors and in communal areas, this means pupils will be asked to wear a face covering unless they have a valid exemption as they walk around school between lessons and at break and lunch time unless they are eating or outside of the buildings. We will review this measure on 30th November and remove it if our number of cases has dropped below the trigger point of 10% in any one Year Group. For those of you asking why this is not being applied to Year 9 only the reason is our corridors are narrow and it is impossible to set up a short-term system for movement around the school that focuses on one Year Group. Additionally, this is not the fault of a specific Year Group, we do have positive cases in other Year Groups as well and it could as easily be any other Year Group and may be in the future, we do not want to penalise or appear to penalise any pupils we simply have to ensure what we put in place increases safety for all
Year 8 will now use the changing rooms as their toilet facilities
Non-essential visitors will not be permitted on site, any essential visits must be pre-booked, and visitors will be required to wear a face covering unless exempt
The government have now issued our CO2 monitors which have been deployed to monitor air quality around the school
Hand hygiene remains vital, pupils can, as they always have been, bring their own sanitiser should they wish
All planned assemblies have been postponed
Parents Evenings will be conducted remotely until further notice
Any pupils in Year 9 deemed a “Close Contact” by the school will receive an additional letter advising them to obtain a PCR test. This does not apply to all of Year 9 as the small number of cases appear to be confined within small social groupings. For those asked to conduct a PCR test, they can continue to come to school whilst they wait to take the test and obtain the
result, but we ask that in line with government guidance they conduct a daily lateral flow test whilst they await the result, we also ask that once the result is known that parents contact school to let us know. They will also be issued an additional LFT kit with their letters today so that they have enough to carry them over
“These additional mitigations have been advised by the local health team and will all stay in place until at least 30th November.
“There are some mitigations we have not taken yet and will not do so unless cases continue to rise, or we are advised to do so. We will not be segregating pupils in school again or instructing the wearing of face coverings within classrooms. Although we advise the wearing of a face covering when walking to and from school this is advice and not an instruction.
“We understand that as a school community of 360 pupils and families the range of views on these matters is very diverse. For some parents you would want us to go further and for others you may want no mitigations at all. It is part of my role to make these decisions ultimately and for staff to carry these out. Irrespective of your position on Covid, vaccination, testing, PPE etc, please be mindful that staff are doing their jobs as directed and to the best of their ability, I am always available to have discussions with parents on sensitive matters. We value and appreciate your support. Our communication with you as parents is I believe a strong point and I take the view that keeping you informed is the best way of us all working together through this.
“We hope that for those children and their families who may be at home at the moment with Covid they are able to get over it without too much distress and we look forward to welcoming them back at the end of their self-isolation.
“Thank you for your continued support.”
Mr M Farmer – Executive Headteacher
