Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

We are looking forward to welcoming you all back to school tomorrow morning after what I hope has been a good rest.  The school day starts at the usual time of 08:45 and it is essential that as a school community we make every effort to keep ourselves and others safe over the coming weeks.  As challenging as it can be we are asking pupils and staff to wear masks, wash/sanitise their hands regularly and to socially distance from each other whenever possible.  It is also important for us to test regularly (twice weekly) using the LFT kits available from the school office.

Please make every effort to do an LFT this evening or tomorrow morning before coming to school.

Pupils should not attend school with symptoms (cough, temperature, loss or change to taste or smell and any cold-like symptoms such as sore head or sore throat) and they should isolate and book a PCR test – a negative LFT is not acceptable if someone has symptoms.  Please remember LFTs should only be used for asymptomatic testing, (ie. when you don’t have symptoms), and results should be uploaded to the gov.uk portal (details included in all test kits).  If you have symptoms – stay off and book a PCR.

With regard to the latest government advice issued this afternoon relating to periods of self-isolation please note that new isolation rules will not apply retrospectively – if staff and pupils are currently isolating they should follow the isolation dates previously given.

Given the current weather conditions we would also recommend that pupils wrap up well and wear warm clothing as teachers will have to keep some windows open in class to ensure good ventilation.

Our Senior Phase Assessment Block will take place from Friday 7^th until Friday 21^st January 2022.  The schedule is available on our school website here.  If a pupil requires to be absent when they should have an assessment – please contact the school office.