Special Education Notice: 2 November 2021
Recommendations regarding additional COVID-19 controls in educational settings
Dear Colleagues,
I hope you had a restful half term. Today our public health team have released a number of recommendations for schools and educational settings to help control the spread of COVID-19 infection. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continues to remain very high in Telford & Wrekin, with continued week-on-week increases during the first half term. The vast majority of positive cases are in school aged children and young people. It is important we take proactive steps to reduce the spread of infection, bring cases down and minimise further disruption to education.
There are two main additional controls proposed:
- That children who are household contacts of positive cases take a daily LFT test for a period of 7 school days in addition to the PCR test they will have been recommended to take. This includes primary aged children (reception onwards) but not those in early years settings.
- That there is consideration of implementing COVID-19 precautions that were in place in schools and settings during the last academic year.
It is important to note the following:
- The Department for Education (DfE) contingency framework allows local authority public health teams to recommend controls as part of their outbreak management responsibilities.
- The recommendations are advisory, not compulsory but are aimed to help settings reduce the transmission of the virus and support outbreak management.
- Schools and settings can determine if they want to implement all or some of the measures dependent on their individual circumstances, COVID-19 infection rates and potential impact on the quality of teaching and learning.
- This advice will reviewed at least fortnightly. Decisions about stepping down the measures will occur if the overall number of cases reduces.
A letter has been provided, which should be downloaded for full details:
COVID-19 management letter for educational settings - 2 November
A template letter has also been produced for schools and settings to adapt to explain these recommendations to parents. This is also available to download:
COVID-19 letter to parents for educational settings
Simon
Simon Wellman
Director: Education and Skills