Charlton School

25^th February 2021

Dear Parents/Carers,

Return to School arrangements and COVID-19 testing for students in School

With the Government announcements on the re-opening of schools, I am writing to confirm the opening and testing arrangements in place at Charlton from Monday 8^th March.  The Government have allowed secondary schools to establish a staggered return to school, to facilitate a mass asymptomatic testing programme of all students.

Covid-19 Testing in School

Students will attend site for a test prior to starting back to school. Once a negative result has been received students will be able to return to school the next day.  Students will receive two further tests in school.  This is for students who are asymptomatic and not displaying Coronavirus symptoms.

On completion of the three tests in school, and once staff are satisfied students are completing it correctly, home test kits will be issued to enable students to test themselves, supervised by parents, twice per week. Initial testing via our asymptomatic test programme in school is a condition prior to being able to transition students to test at home.

Whilst testing is non-compulsory, we strongly recommend that all students undertake this process.  If you are happy for your child to be tested, please complete the online consent form:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=2s8TOK9SpUy44yMVeXcKukUVAPHX4pVNshvCJ8oFcsFUNlhPVk1OWTBGR0ZTS0tQQ0M3VDc4QUdPWi4u

If you have previously provided consent due to accessing our on-site provision during lockdown, you do not need to complete it again.  Please complete the consent form by 3.00pm on Thursday 4^th March to allow us to bulk upload registrations to the NHS Test and Trace system.  Students who have tested positive for Coronavirus within the last 90 days are exempt from testing and should not complete the consent form.

Negative results will be issued via the NHS system through a text and email, any students testing positive will receive a phone call from school, as well as receiving a message from the NHS.

The testing programme at school is for people with no symptoms. If your child develops symptoms at any time (such as a high temperature; a new, continuous cough; or a loss or change to their sense of smell or taste) they and the family must immediately self-isolate and not attend school, book a test by calling 119 or visiting https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test.

Arrangements for the return to school

Live lessons will stop on Friday 5^th March (Thursday 4^th March for Year 11).  Online work will be set through Doddle or the Assignments element of Microsoft Teams until students are scheduled to return to school.

Friday 5^th March

• Keyworker and vulnerable student provision will remain in place, students with consent given previously will be tested in the week of 1^st to 5^th
• Year 11 invited to school at set times from 8.45am till 11.45am in tutor groups to be tested. 
• Students in Year 11 return home immediately after their test and must not break social distancing rules and not have close contact with others.

 Monday 8^th March

• All Negative Year 11 students (and those not consented for testing) return to school and follow normal timetable.
• Keyworker and Vulnerable student provision will remain in place and follow normal school timetable.
• Year 7 invited to school at set times from 8.45am till 11.45am in tutor groups to be tested. 
• Year 10 invited to school at set times from 12.15pm till 3.15pm in tutor groups to be tested. 
• Students in Year 7 and 10 return home immediately after their test and must not break social distancing rules and not have close contact with others.

Tuesday 9^th March

• All Negative Years 7 and 10 students (and those not consented for testing) return to school and follow normal timetable.
• Year 11 and Keyworker and vulnerable students follow normal school timetable.
• Year 8 invited to school at set times from 8.45am till 11.45am in tutor groups to be tested. 
• Year 9 invited to school at set times from 12.15pm till 3.15pm in tutor groups to be tested. 
• Students in Year 8 and 9 return home immediately after their test and must not break social distancing rules and not have close contact with others.

Wednesday 10^th March

• All Year groups in school following normal timetable.
• Students will be withdrawn from their lessons between 10^th and 18^th March for their second and third tests.  On completion of the third test, they will be issued home test kits.

An email will be sent to each Year group separately, giving specific details of their times of arrival. Thank you for your support in helping us to facilitate this and ultimately reducing the chance of coronavirus entering the building.

Could I please ask that before students return to school, they all complete the Emotional Health and Wellbeing Questionnaire that Miss Wills will be setting on Doddle. This will help us to identify any students who will need extra support following their return to school. Please could you encourage your son/daughter to complete this on their own, and to be completely honest in their answers.

Face Coverings

Due to a change in Government guidance, staff and students are to wear face coverings in all areas, including classrooms, as a temporary extra measure. Face coverings will be able to be removed in the following situations only:

• when seated in the canteen for eating and drinking.
• where wearing a face covering would impact on the ability to take part in exercise or strenuous activity, for example in PE lessons.
• for those who are exempt from wearing a face covering as set out in Government guidance.
• When outside but recommend students keep their face mask on if talking with friends.

To help us with this, please can you ensure your child has a face covering for school each day.

Uniform

Students are expected to return to school in full school uniform, students can attend site for the purpose of testing in their own clothes.  A letter has been issued earlier this week to parents around the arrangements for purchasing uniform from Bakers and Sons.

Attendance

On their return to school the usual rules and duties around school attendance are in place, attendance is mandatory and regular attendance is expected for all, unless a student themselves has been provided with a clinically extremely vulnerable shielding letter. In line with Government guidance, recording and reporting of attendance will be completed daily.

The School’s previous COVID-secure rules will remain in place. These include Year group bubbles, one-way systems, staggered break and lunchtimes and staggered starts and ends to the school day.  Extra-curricular clubs will not resume immediately, we will review this for the start of the summer term.

Please not a change below to the Year 9 timings, they will no longer have a split tutor period, having one tutor session only at the start of the day, and finishing at 14:50.

It is unfortunate but perhaps somewhat inevitable with the high number of positive cases locally still, and despite the testing programme and other measures in place, there will be a need for students to isolate and for us to respond to positive cases in the same way we have done previously, with advice from the Health Protection Hub.

The only way we can try and avoid this is to not bring Coronavirus into school and would urge parents and carers to seek tests for their students if they are unwell, even if not displaying the well-known Coronavirus symptoms.  Testing is readily available in Telford and Wrekin for people with or without symptoms.  https://www.telford.gov.uk/info/20741/i_have_covid_19_symptoms/5177/getting_a_covid-19_test_in_telford_and_wrekin

We look forward to welcoming all students back to school.

Yours faithfully,

Mr A McNaughton

Principal