CONTENTS

 

CHANGES TO THE ISOLATION GUIDANCE: IF YOU HAVE COVID SYMPTOMS OR TEST POSITIVE	23 MAY 2022
LETTER TO PARENTS FROM PUBLIC HEALTH HOUNSLOW including vaccinations for 5-11 year olds	23 MAY 2022

NEW: IF YOU HAVE COVID SYMPTOMS	28 FEB 2022
NEW: CONFLICT IN EUROPE	28 FEB 2022
SUMMER 2022 SATS ARRANGEMENTS	01 MAR 2022
BERKELEY'S RESPONSE TO THE PLAN FOR LIVING WITH COVID - ENGLAND	21 FEB 2022
ACADEMY TERM DATES 2022	21 FEB 2022
TIMINGS OF THE ACADEMY DAY 2022	01 SEP 2022
CLASS TEACHERS AND TEACHING ASSISTANTS	01 JAN 2022
OTHER KEY STAFF	01 JAN 2022
RESPONSE TO THE PLAN FOR LIVING WITH COVID - ENGLAND	21 FEB 2022
COVID RISK & INFORMATION	21 FEB 2022
THE PM'S PLAN FOR LIVING WITH COVID (SUMMARY)	21 FEB 2022

 

CHANGES TO THE ISOLATION GUIDANCE: IF YOU HAVE COVID SYMPTOMS OR TEST POSITIVE. NEW GUIDANCE: 25 APRIL 2022

The Government has issued two new generic guidance documents to subsume and replace Coronavirus specific guidance previously issued.

These are: 

·         EMERGENCY PLANNING & RESPONSE for education, childcare, and children’s social care settings - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) – alongside health and safety guidance

·         HEALTH PROTECTION in education and childcare settings - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

 

SOME KEY CHANGES

Specific guidance for Covid-19 has been withdrawn or changed and schools are referred to the standard guidance applying to any respiratory infectious disease

·         If a child or a young person of school age has a positive COVID-19 test result they should try to stay at home and where possible avoid contact with other people for 3 whole days after the day when they took the test. The risk of passing the infection on to others is much lower after 3 days, if they feel well and do not have a high temperature. They can return to school on Day 4 regardless of whether they continue to test positive or not.

·         If an adult has a positive COVID-19 test result they should try to stay at home and where possible avoid contact with other people for 5 whole days after the day, they took the test. They can return to school / work on Day 6 regardless of whether they continue to test positive or not.

·         Anyone with mild symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat, or mild cough, who are otherwise well, does not need to test and can continue to attend their education or childcare setting.

·         Anyone who is unwell and has a high temperature should stay at home and where possible avoid contact with other people. They can go back to education or childcare setting when they no longer have a high temperature and they are well enough.

 

OTHER HEALTH ALERTS: SCARLET FEVER AND CHICKEN POX

There has been an increase in the number of scarlet fever and chickenpox outbreaks linked to early years and primary schools recently, including some where both infections are co-circulating.

During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic there has been little chickenpox activity. Due to pandemic and reduced mixing a larger proportion of children in Reception and Year 1 age remain susceptible to chickenpox infection.

Guidelines for public health management of scarlet fever outbreaks

Free LFD tests and Free PCR tests are no longer available in England. Community Testing has ended in England. 

The academy will provide LFD testing for those staff who wish to continue testing twice weekly for the remainder of the academic year and may require testing by pupils or staff who appear symptomatic. 

The academy can take the decision to refuse a pupil, authorised visitor or member 

PUBLIC HEALTH HOUNSLOW - LETTER TO PARENTS

LIVING WITH COVID – INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

Due to high immunity in society, a greater understanding of the virus and improved access to treatments, we can now focus on how we live with COVID-19.

From 1 April, routine covid testing is no longer expected in all education settings.

Following expert advice, we know that Covid presents a low risk of serious illness to most children and young people, and most of those who are fully vaccinated.

However, Covid is still circulating in the community and can be harmful to some vulnerable people.

If you or an adult family member has tested positive for Covid you are advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for five days, which is when you are most infectious.

For children and young people, the advice is to stay home for three days.

 

GENERAL ADVICE AROUND RESPIRATORY CONDITIONS CHILDREN’S SOCIAL CARE SETTINGS.

Children and young people who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay at home and where possible avoid contact with other people. They can go back to education or childcare setting when they no longer have a high temperature, and they are well enough.

What are schools doing?

All schools should have in place infection prevention and control measures that will help to manage the spread of infection, including:

• Ensuring all eligible groups are enabled and supported to take up the offer of national vaccination programmes including COVID-19 and flu.
• Ensuring occupied spaces are well-ventilated and let fresh air in.
• Reinforcing good hygiene practices such as hand washing and cleaning.

 

What can you do to reduce the risk of catching and passing on COVID-19:

• Get vaccinated
• Let fresh air in if meeting indoors, or meeting outside
• Trying to stay at home if you are unwell
• Washing your hands and following advice to ‘Catch it, Bin it, Kill it’

 

Vaccination

We continue to encourage young people to get vaccinated. If your child has not been vaccinated, you can read more about the vaccine programme www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/

12 to 15 year olds will still be able to access the vaccine outside of schools at a vaccination centre, pharmacy or walk-in centre.

• 5-11 year olds are now being offered the COVID-19 vaccine in pharmacies, GPs and community sites.
• On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 5-11 year olds can be vaccinated with their parents or parental consent at

 

CRANFORD COMMUNITY COLLEGE, Picasso Centre (Bhogal Pharmacy): BOOK ONLINE OR WALK IN WITHOUT AN APPOINTMENT

Parents of 5–11-year-olds should also have received a letter from the NHS with further information.

Parents can book a Covid-19 vaccination online at:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/  or call 119. 

Alternatively, you can find out about walk-in community sites at:

https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/homepage/223/vaccination_centres_in_hounslow

IF YOU HAVE COVID SYMPTOMS OR TEST POSITIVE You should book a PCR test and isolate and take an LFD test from 5 days after your symptoms started (or the day your test was taken if you did not have symptoms) followed by another one the next day. Staff, Students & AUTHORISED VISITORS: If both these tests’ results are negative, staff and students can return to school.  All isolation ends on Day 10, unless a person has an on-going fever  Important Note: The academy can take the decision to refuse a pupil, authorised visitor or member of staff if, in its reasonable judgement, it is necessary to protect other pupils and staff from possible infection with COVID-19.

THE PM'S 'PLAN FOR LIVING WITH COVID': 21 FEB 2022 (SUMMARY)

 

STATEMENT

The plan covers four main pillars:

• Removing domestic restrictions while encouraging safer behaviours through public health advice, in common with longstanding ways of managing other infectious illnesses
• Protecting the vulnerable through pharmaceutical interventions and testing, in line with other viruses
• Maintaining resilience against future variants, including through ongoing surveillance, contingency planning and the ability to reintroduce key capabilities such as mass vaccination and testing in an emergency
• Securing innovations and opportunities from the COVID-19 response, including investment in life sciences

 

The public are encouraged to continue to follow public health advice, as with all infectious diseases such as the flu, to minimise the chance of catching Covid and help protect family and friends.

This includes by letting fresh air in when meeting indoors, wearing a face covering in crowded and enclosed spaces where you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet, and washing your hands.

The Prime Minister has today confirmed domestic legal restrictions will end on 24 February 2022 as we begin to treat Covid as other infectious diseases such as flu. This means:

The remaining domestic restrictions in England will be removed. The legal requirement to self-isolate ends.

• Until 1 April 2022, we still advise people who test positive to stay at home.
• Adults and children who test positive are advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for at least five full days and then continue to follow the guidance until they have received two negative test results on consecutive days.
• From April 2022, the Government will update guidance setting out the ongoing steps that people with COVID-19 should take to be careful and considerate of others, similar to advice on other infectious diseases. This will align with testing changes.
• Self-isolation support payments, national funding for practical support and the medicine delivery service will no longer be available.
• Routine contact tracing ends, including venue check-ins on the NHS COVID-19 app.
• Fully vaccinated adults and those aged under 18 who are close contacts are no longer advised to test daily for seven days and the legal requirement for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to self-isolate will be removed.

 

As set out in the Autumn and Winter Plan, universal free provision of tests will end as our response to the virus changes.

From the start of April 2022, the government will end free symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public.

Limited symptomatic testing will be available for a small number of at-risk groups and we will set out further details on which groups will be eligible shortly.

Free symptomatic testing will also remain available to social care staff.

We are working with retailers to ensure that everyone who wants to can buy a test.

With Omicron now the dominant variant and less severe, levels of high immunity across the country and a range of strategies in place including vaccines, treatments, and public health knowledge, the value for taxpayers’ money is now less clear. Free testing should rightly be focused on at-risk groups.

The Government remains ready to respond if a new variant emerges and places unsustainable pressure on the NHS, through surveillance systems and contingency measures such as increased testing capacity or vaccine programmes.

Our world-leading ONS survey will allow us to continue to track the virus in granular detail to help us spot any surges in the virus.

Further changes being made include:

• Today the guidance has been removed for staff and students in most education and childcare settings to undertake twice weekly asymptomatic testing.
• On 24 February 2022, removing additional local authority powers to tackle local COVID-19 outbreaks (No.3 regulations). Local Authorities will manage local outbreaks in high-risk settings as they do with other infectious diseases.
• On 24 March 2022, the Government will also remove the COVID-19 provisions within the Statutory Sick Pay and Employment and Support Allowance regulations.

 

From 1 April 2022, the Government will:

• Remove the current guidance on voluntary COVID-status certification in domestic settings and no longer recommend that certain venues use the NHS COVID Pass.
• No longer provide free universal symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public in England.
• Remove the health and safety requirement for every employer to explicitly consider COVID-19 in their risk assessments.

 

PRESS CONFERENCE

When the pandemic began, we had little knowledge of this virus and none about the vaccines and treatments we have today.

So there was no option but to use government regulations to protect our NHS and save lives.

But those restrictions on our liberties have brought grave costs to our economy, our society, and the chances of our children.

So from the outset, we were clear that we must chart a course back towards normality as rapidly as possible, by developing the vaccines and treatments that could gradually replace those restrictions.

And as a result of possibly the greatest national effort in our peacetime history, that is exactly what we have done.

Thanks to our brilliant scientists.

Thanks to the extraordinary men and women of our NHS and to every one of you who has come forwards to get jabbed and get boosted - the United Kingdom has become the first country in the world to administer an approved vaccine, and the fastest major European nation to roll out both the vaccines and the booster to half our population.

We have emerged from the teeth of the pandemic before many others, retaining one of the most open economies and societies in Europe and the fastest growth in the G7 last year.

And while the pandemic is not over, we have passed the peak of the Omicron wave, with cases falling, and hospitalisations in England now fewer than 10,000 and still falling, and so now we have the chance to complete that transition back towards normality, while maintaining the contingencies to respond to a resurgence or a new variant.

In England, we will remove all remaining domestic restrictions in law.

From this Thursday, it will no longer be law to self-isolate if you test positive, and so we will also end the provision of self-isolation support payments, although Statutory Sick Pay can still be claimed for a further month.

If you’re a fully vaccinated close contact or under 18 you will no longer be asked to test daily for seven days.

And if you are close contact who is not fully vaccinated you will no longer be required to self-isolate.

Until 1 April 2022, we will still advise you to stay at home if you test positive.

But after that, we will encourage people with Covid symptoms to exercise personal responsibility, just as we encourage people who may have flu to be considerate towards others.

It is only because levels of immunity are so high and deaths are now, if anything, below where you would normally expect for this time of year that we can lift these restrictions.

And it is only because we know Omicron is less severe, that testing for Omicron on the colossal scale we have been doing is now much less valuable in preventing serious illness.

We should be proud that the UK established the biggest testing programme per person of any large country in the world.

But its budget in the last financial year was bigger than the Home Office - and it cost – the testing programme cost - £2 billion just last month alone.

So we must scale back and prioritise our resources for the most vulnerable.

From today, staff and students in most education and childcare settings will no longer be asked to undertake twice weekly asymptomatic testing.

And from 1st April 2022, we will end free symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public.

But we will continue providing free symptomatic tests to those at the highest risk from Covid.

And in line with the practice of many other countries, we are working with retailers to ensure you will always be able to buy a test.

We should be clear the pandemic is not over and there may be significant resurgences.

Our scientists are certain there will be new variants and it’s very possible that those will be worse than Omicron.

So we will continue to protect the most vulnerable with targeted vaccinations and treatments and we have bought enough doses of vaccine to anticipate a wide range of possible JCVI recommendations.

Today this includes a new Spring booster, which will be offered to those aged 75 and over, older care home residents, and those over 12 who are immunosuppressed.

We will also retain disease surveillance systems and contingency measures which can ensure our resilience in the face of future waves or new variants.

And we will build on the innovations that defined the very best of our response to the pandemic, including continuing the work of the Vaccines Task Force, which has already secured contracts with manufacturers trialling new vaccines which could provide protection against new variants.

Today is not the day we can declare victory over Covid, because this virus is not going away.

Boris Johnson, PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

End.