Charlton School

Dear Parents/Carers,

You may have already read about the Government’s proposal to end Plan B regulations.  The implications for school are that this removes the necessity to wear face masks in school from Thursday 27^th January.

However, cases in Telford and Wrekin, whilst falling, still remain well above Local and National averages. The local Health Protection Hub are concerned about the impact of removing face coverings at this time and have advised that if certain triggers are met in school by the number of positive cases, then it may be necessary to insist on face coverings being worn again.  We will continue to support any child or staff member who wants to continue to wear a face covering and we would encourage them to continue to do this until cases in Telford and Wrekin fall significantly.

Whilst it has been announced there is a plan to end isolation periods, this is not yet the case and all our community who test positive, or who have symptoms, must continue to isolate following the new guidance below:

Changes to the self-isolation period for those who test positive for COVID-19

This change came into effect in England on Monday 17th January and applies to all positive cases, regardless of vaccination status.

People who are self-isolating with COVID-19 have the option to reduce their isolation period after 5 full days if they test negative with a lateral flow device (LFD) test on both day 5 and day 6 and they do not have a temperature. For example, if they test negative on the morning of day 5 and the morning of day 6, they can return to their education or childcare setting immediately on day 6.

The first test must be taken no earlier than day 5 of the self-isolation period, and the second must be taken the following day. All test results should be reported to NHS Test and Trace.  If the result of either test is positive, they should continue to self-isolate until they get negative results from two LFD tests on consecutive days or until they have completed 10 full days of self-isolation, whichever is earliest.

Anyone who is unable to take LFD tests or anyone who continues to have a temperature will need to complete the full 10-day period of self-isolation.

Please continue to test regularly to stop coronavirus being brought in to school, we will be issuing a further box of LFD tests on Friday this week.

Yours faithfully,

Mr A McNaughton

Principal