The letter below has been issued by the Chief Education Officer.

Please take the opportunity to read it regarding an update on Covid cases.

Dear parent/carer,

I thought it would be helpful to provide you with an update on the Covid situation in our schools and centres currently and to advise you of proposed changes to our ongoing mitigations.

Unfortunately, the number of cases in East Ayrshire continues to cause concern and, after a temporary drop in cases, many of our schools and centres are seeing a rise in cases and we have an increasing number of outbreaks (where several pupils/staff in same class test positive).

As always, we are mindful of the need to balance the reduction of opportunities for transmission of the virus with the need to support the overall wellbeing of children. To this end we permitted schools to restart outdoor extra-curricular activities from the 1st of November and we have now carried out risk assessments to allow the restart of indoor extra-curricular activities, subject to mitigations being in place.

Please understand that individual schools are absolutely authorised to take decisions about which, if any, activities they are able to offer at the current time. We have a number of schools with increasing Covid cases and also schools with acute staffing issues due to absence, therefore this will impact on what can be offered at this time. In the event of an outbreak in a school we will need to suspend extra-curricular activities for a period to minimise the opportunities for transmission. Our priority remains to ensure that schools can remain open and that core education can continue to be delivered. Further information about activities which will operate will come to you direct from your child’s school and you should contact them with any queries relating to this.

Christmas Activities

Scottish Government guidance for schools still does not permit large gatherings of pupils indoors for events such as assemblies due to the enhanced transmission risks of having large groups in close proximity in an enclosed space for an extended period of time. This means that we are not able to offer many of our Christmas activities, such as visits to pantomimes and concerts, in the usual way. Schools and centres will continue to look at creative ways to offer pupils such experiences, but these will be within their own class group. Across Ayrshire we have agreed to treat all performances with audiences in the same way therefore we will not be able to invite parents into our schools and ECCs to attend concerts and other events. I understand that this will be disappointing for you, but I must reiterate that our primary concern is to ensure that we can keep schools and centres open. We have consulted with colleagues in North and South Ayrshire Education Services and we have taken an Ayrshire-wide approach to this.

Thank you once again for the fantastic support you provide to our staff and for your continuing vigilance for any potential symptoms of Covid in your child(ren). We remain hopeful that 2022 will be a more positive one for us all and look forward to further relaxation of the mitigations at an appropriate time.

Kindest regards,

LINDA McAULAY-GRIFFITHS
Chief Education Officer