As we settle into the new routines at School, our Headmistress, Mrs Gibson answers questions from our community; this week we focus on procedures we follow if your daughter has COVID related symptoms and explain our procedures for a positive case in our community.

What should I do if my daughter is displaying possible symptoms?

If your daughter displays any coronavirus symptoms, such as a new continual cough, an elevated temperature or loss of taste/smell, you should self-isolate and arrange for a test to be taken.

If any of these possible symptoms develop at School we will arrange for a nurse to assess your daughter and if required we will ask you to come and pick your daughter up.

In line with government guidance, your daughter and anyone in her immediate family must self-isolate until test results are received.

If test results are positive, your daughter is expected to remain in isolation for a further 10 days.          

Who do I inform if my daughter’s test is positive?

During school hours please call the Senior School or Junior School office or email [email protected], a member of our senior leadership team will get back to you as quickly as possible. 

Outside of school hours we have set up a dedicated email address so that we can respond to you as promptly as we can. Please email [email protected]

Anyone who tests positive must also follow the Government’s Test and Trace procedures which will identify possible close contacts outside of school. 

What happens if a student tests positive?

If a student or staff member tests positive we firstly talk to the individual and ask them to complete a series of questions so that we can quickly and clearly identify any specific close contacts, and we can develop an overview of their movement around School. We also keep seating plans for all lessons and Bubbles have dedicated zones in the dining hall so we can clearly define where students and staff have been. 

In addition, we notify our local health authority and the DoE, who will offer us guidance.

Depending upon the advice we are given, and the extent of the close contacts, we then will make a decision, based upon our stringent risk assessments, as to who needs to go into precautionary self-isolation. This could range from a few individual students and teachers to a class Bubble in the Junior School or a Year group Bubble (s) in the Senior School.

We would inform parents and staff of the impacted students as promptly as we can, by phone or email. Impacted students will be put into specific isolation areas and continue with their lessons until a parent can pick them up. We appreciate for working parents this is inconvenient, but we do need to prioritise getting anyone who is identified as needing to self-isolate off site as quickly as possible and we appreciate parental assistance with this.

Students in an isolation Bubble would only be taken to lunch when the rest of the school is out of that area and we would provide snacks and drinks in the meantime.

We have stringent additional cleaning procedures in place which we would activate in areas that the individual would habitually spend time.

If your daughter during the self-isolation period starts to show symptoms she must get a test and at that point your family would need to go into isolation. If your daughter does not show symptoms your family does not need to go into isolation.

We are obliged to share the details of any student who has been asked to self-isolate, because they have been deemed to be in close contact with a positive case, with the local healthy authority for Test and Trace purposes.

If they are asked to self-isolate, how long would a Bubble, or individual student, have to stay out of school?

Government and local health authority guidance stipulates that we must trace all in-school contacts for two days prior to the onset of symptoms.

Once we have determined those students and staff that need, as a precaution, to self-isolate, they will have to isolate for up to 14 days since their last contact with the infected individual.

Day 1 is stated as the day after they were last in contact. For example, if your daughter was last in contact with the individual four days before they tested positive, they would be asked to self-isolate for a further 11 days before returning to school (as long as they did not display any symptoms).

We know this is a little complicated and in a situation where we had to ask students to self-isolate we would explain the exact period.

What happens to their lessons?

Students will be expected to login and work remotely from their iPad.

If it is just individual students who are impacted, teachers will share work on google drive/google classroom and keep checking –in with the student to make sure they are managing. If a whole Bubble is sent home teachers will teach remotely through our regular platforms and established practices, in line with our remote learning expectations.

If a Junior School Bubble needs to go into isolation iPads will either be sent home with students, or parents will be asked to come and pick up devices at a pre-arranged time.

What about buses/lift shares?

If your daughter has been asked to self-isolate, she must not travel on the bus for the period of time she is expected to be in isolation. She will need to be collected from school by a parent/guardian

If your daughter has tested positive for COVID-19 you must inform your bus provider and they will activate their own procedures.

If your daughter is asked by her transport provider to self-isolate because she has been in close contact with a confirmed case on her bus, please inform the School so that we are able to get work set for her.  Self-isolation of a bus bubble would initially only impact those travelling on that bus, it would not impact their wider contacts in the first instance.