Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
Hello, I hope you are all well and had good weekends celebrating Mother's Day. Today has been rather strange in school with only 5 children. The staff that were in have been busy planning learning activities to upload, cleaning, tidying, putting together a table tennis table and performing an assembly that will be shared with you later on in the week. Please remember that we are only an email away, so if you have any worries, queries or questions please do not hesitate to get in touch. We are all learning together.
Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, will be making a statement to the House of Commons at 5pm. Further updates will be circulated following this statement.
The most common symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are recent onset of:
For most people, coronavirus (COVID-19) will be a mild illness.
This advice is intended for:
The best thing you can do now is plan for how you can adapt your daily routine, and that of others in your household, to be able to follow this advice. Some of the ways in which you could prepare include:
Today, the Department for Education and Public Health England have issued updated guidance for education settings on COVID-19. This guidance will assist staff in addressing COVID-19 in educational settings. This includes childcare, schools, further and higher educational institutions.
What you need to know:
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The updated guidance can be found here:
Current advice remains in place: no education or children’s social care setting should close in response to a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 case unless advised to do so by Public Health England.
The Chief Medical Officer has advised that the impact of closing schools on both children’s education and on the workforce would be substantial, but the benefit to public health may not be. Decisions on future advice to education or children’s social care settings will be taken based on the latest and best scientific evidence, which at this stage suggests children are a lower risk group.
Where a pupil is in self-isolation, in accordance with latest information and advice from Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England, the pupil should be recorded as unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances in the attendance register. Code Y (Unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances) should be used in this instance.
If a pupil does not attend school, despite the school operating as usual and the pupil is not self-isolating, they should be marked as absent. It is for headteachers to determine whether or not the absence is authorised depending on the individual circumstances.
Where a pupil cannot attend school due to illness, as normally would happen, the pupil should be recorded as absent in the attendance register and the school will authorise the absence. Code I (Illness) should be used in this instance.
The most important thing individuals can do to protect themselves is to wash their hands more often, for at least 20 seconds, with soap and water. Public Health England recommends that in addition to handwashing before eating, and after coughing and sneezing, everyone should also wash hands after using toilets and travelling on public transport.
Watch this short NHS film for guidance:
The Department for Education coronavirus helpline is available to answer questions about COVID-19 relating to education and children’s social care. Staff, parents and young people can contact this helpline as follows:
Phone: 0800 046 8687
Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday), 10am to 4pm (Saturday to Sunday)Please note, we are currently experiencing high volumes of calls. We appreciate your patience at this time and apologise for any wait that you may experience. To ensure that we answer your calls as quickly as possible we have now extended our opening hours to cover weekends.
Yesterday, the Government announced that we are moving from the Contain phase of the coronavirus action plan and into the Delay phase, in response to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Full details of each stage in the government action plan can be found here:
To support the delay of the spread of the virus, the Department for Health and Social Care has asked anyone who shows certain symptoms to stay at home for 7 days, regardless of whether they have travelled to affected areas. This means people should stay at home and avoid all but essential contact with others for 7 days from the point of displaying mild symptoms, to slow the spread of infection.
The symptoms are:
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You do not need to call NHS 111 to stay at home. If your symptoms worsen during your stay at home period or are no better after 7 days contact NHS 111 online at 111.nhs.uk. If you have no internet access, you should call NHS 111. For a medical emergency dial 999.
Current advice remains in place: no education or children’s social care setting should close in response to a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 case unless advised to do so by Public Health England.
The Chief Medical Officer has advised that the impact of closing schools on both children’s education and on the workforce will be substantial, but the benefit to public health may not be. Decisions on future advice to schools will be taken based on the latest and best scientific evidence, which at this stage suggests children are a lower risk group.
Updated about COVID-19 – Novel Coronavirus (10th March 2020) which we have received today from Public Health England
Current situation:
We currently have 4 cases of COVID-19 in Warwickshire and 3 cases in Coventry. All appropriate actions are being taken with regard to follow up of all of the close contacts of these cases. Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council are working alongside Public Health England and NHS partners to support this work.
To date there are 373 patients in England who have tested positive for COVID-19 to date. Of the remaining 25888 tests that have been undertaken in the UK, all have been confirmed as negative.
Please see below for the national COVID-19 action plan: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-action-plan Key advice for returning travellers
Information for returning travellers is regularly updated to include new countries as appropriate, with specific advice depending on the area/towns in the countries that they may have been to/through.
Please note that there has been a change late on 9th March 2020 for advice for returning travellers from Italy. People returning from Italy from 9th March 2020 onwards are being asked to self isolate (whether or not they have symptoms). People returning from Italy between 19th February and 8th March 2020 are being asked to self-isolate if they have been to one of the specified areas (please note these were increased in size on the 8th March 2020). Other returning travellers from Italy only need to self-isolate if they develop symptoms.
Detailed information and advice for the public can be found on the NHS.uk website (and will be regularly updated): https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ Further information for the public about the situation can be found here (and will be regularly updated): https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-information-for-the-public Department of Education have a helpline up and running to answer questions about COVID19 related to education.
Staff, parents and young people can contact the helpline as follows:
Phone: 0800 046 8687
Email: DfE.coronavirushelpline@education.gov.uk
Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday)
Travel advice
Travel advice is changing regularly as the situation changes internationally. We recommend that you look up country-specific information and advice on the Foreign Office website here: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice Useful guidance, resources and communications materials,
I have been informed today that Severn Trent will be disconnecting our water supply on Thursday 5th March in the morning. In light of the current situation concerning COVID-19 and the lack of water in order to flush toilets and wash hands, I have made the decision to close the School and Nursery for the day.
As Thursday is World Book Day we will now hold World Book Day on Friday 6th March.
The Athletics Competition will still go ahead on Thursday and children should meet Mr Nicholls on the bottom School Car Park at 11.20am.
I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause but as always the health and safety of pupils and staff is my main priority.
Today, Class 5 visited Birmingham Central Mosque to support our learning on Islam.
We learnt about the features of a mosque, the role of the mosque in the community and the core beliefs of Muslims. During our visit, we learnt some interesting facts and we also admired the beautiful chandelier in the main prayer room!
Our tour guide, Mrs Kay, commented on the children's fantastic behaviour and I was so proud of how respectful, thoughtful and interested they were during the visit.
Well done Class 5! You stars!