INFORMATON FOR PARENTS REGARDING ADDITIONAL COVID MEASURES IN SCHOOL
There has been a large increase in the number of children and young people in County Durham testing positive for COVID-19 and the highest case rates are in school age children. This is leading to spread of COVID-19 within families and into older age groups, especially with the new Omicron variant.
The increase in COVID-19 cases in children is disrupting their education, affecting schools and has an impact on the wider community.
We have received recommendations from Durham County Council’s Public Health team to re-introduce the following measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in school:
- The use of face coverings in communal areas for all adults
- Staggering start and finish times
- Grouping of pupils in school by class to reduce mixing
- To cancel or postpone educational visits, assemblies, whole school events
- Continued attention will be given to ventilation, cleaning and respiratory and hand hygiene
In light of these latest recommendations we have reverted to the staggered start which we operated in the summer term 2021 and will be bringing one class into school at a time in order that we can maintain social distancing between pupils and parents. The new arrangements will be as follows:
Arrival and home time arrangements
| Class | Teacher | Start time | End time |
| Reception | Miss Cowley | 9.00am | 3.00pm |
| Class 1 | Mrs Bulmer | 8.45am | 2.45pm |
| Class 2 | Mrs Greaves | 8.50am | 2.50pm |
| Class 3 | Miss Wilson | 8.55am | 2.55pm |
| Class 4 | Mrs Charlton | 9.05am | 3.05pm |
| Class 5 | Mrs Binks | 9.10am | 3.10pm |
| Class 6 | Miss Binks | 9.15am | 3.15pm |
| Nursery | Mrs Edwards | 9.00am | 12.00pm for part time pupils
3.00pm for full time pupils |
In order to allow for social distancing, it is important that you only arrive at school at your allocated time and we would be grateful if you could ensure that your child does not arrive late.
Children will not be allowed into school earlier than their specified time except in the following circumstances: for any children who have siblings in a different year group, we will allow their siblings to enter school on a morning before their official start time, in order to prevent parents gathering at the top of the drive. So for example a Year 1 child may arrive at 8.45am and their Y5 sibling would start at 9.10am but we would allow both children to enter at 8.45am. We will operate the same procedure at home time (for any families where there is a 10 minute interval or more) and will hold onto siblings in school until the eldest sibling’s home time and bring all siblings up to the gate for that time. This only applies to families with more than one child, all other children should arrive and leave at their specified start time.
We appreciate that these new arrangements may cause some difficulties for working parents and if you have any problems which you can’t resolve please do contact us to see if we may be able to help.
Class bubbles and breaktime arrangements
We have continued to keep children in class bubbles as much as possible since we returned in September but we will now be reverting to split break times and lunchtimes to enable all ‘bubbles’ to remain isolated. Reception and Nursery children will eat their lunch in the school hall but all other year groups will eat in their classrooms. Trays and cutlery will all be sanitised before use and all tables will be cleaned before and after lunch.
Health, safety and hygiene
Scientific advice states that the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced by: regular handwashing, ensuring good respiratory hygiene – promoting the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach, increased cleaning and hygiene measures and social distancing where possible. Disciplined handwashing continues to be integrated throughout the day to ensure the highest level of hygiene, with staff working tirelessly to clean surfaces during the day as required and to carry out deep cleaning at the end of every day. Face coverings will be worn by staff and adult visitors in communal areas. Children in primary school do not need to wear a face covering.
Help, support, and further information.
To help you comply with the requirement to self-isolate, the County Durham Together Community Hub can provide access to essential supplies, financial support and emotional support as well as other services. Please visit www.durham.gov.uk/covid19help or call the Community Hub on 03000 260260 for further details.
There is also support available the coronavirus section via durhamlocate.org.uk
St Stephens CE Summer Term 21 COVID-19 Risk Assessment
St Stephens CE remote learning policy
