Students return to School: Guidance notes for September 2021

 

How will the risk of spreading the virus be kept to an absolute minimum?

Your child will not longer be placed in a bubble. We will aim to minimise and control the spread of Covid -19 by implementing the following control measures:

• Ensure good hygiene for everyone.
• Maintain appropriate cleaning regimes.
• Keep occupied spaces well ventilated.
• Follow public health advice on testing, self-isolation and managing confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Asymptomatic testing

Guidance requires us as a school to carry out asymptomatic testing on the first day students return to school in September. The school will set up a small asymptomatic testing site on site.

Therefore, there will be staggered start times on the first day of term; On Thursday 2^nd of September Year 11 students to start at 9am as normal and Year 9 & 10 to start 10.30am.

We will test students again on Monday 6^th September – all students are expected at 9am

All students are expected to return to school unless they have symptoms, have had a positive test result or other reasons requiring them to stay at home due to the risk of them passing on COVID-19 (for example, they are required to quarantine).

If your child is unable to attend, please inform us by 9.15am at the very latest.

Thereafter, we will continue to provide our school community with the provision to be tested twice a week at school until the end of September, when this will be reviewed.

We do encourage all students to take part in this testing programme and if you have not yet provided consent, please complete the form available here and send it back with your child on the first day of term.

What if my child LFD test on site is positive?

Students with a positive LFD test result will need to self-isolate in line with the stay at home guidance for households with possible or confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) infection.

Your child will be placed in a special isolation room whilst the school contacts you to arrange to pick up your child in person as soon as possible.

They will also need to get a free PCR test to check if they have COVID-19 before they are permitted back into school.

Tracing close contacts and isolation

From 16 August 2021, children under the age of 18 years old will no longer be required to self-isolate if they are contacted by NHS Test and Trace as a close contact of a positive COVID-19 case.

This means that If someone in the household has symptoms of COVID-19, or has tested positive for COVID-19, your child will not need to self-isolate.

When my child develops COVID-19 symptoms or has a positive test

It is very important that you do NOT send your child to school if they have any of these 3 symptoms of COVID-19, even if they are mild:

• a high temperature
• a new, continuous cough
• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste

Your child should self-isolate immediately and you should arrange for them to get a PCR test as soon as possible. If the test come back negative, then only will they be permitted back to school.

If your child tests positive, their self-isolation period includes the day your symptoms started (or the day you had the test, if you did not have symptoms) and the next 10 full days.

They may need to self-isolate for longer if you get symptoms while self-isolating or your symptoms do not go away.

Furter advice can be found via the public health advice link on when to self-isolate and what to do. 

When my child develops COVID-19 symptoms at school

If your child develops COVID-19 symptoms, however mild, we will contact you to arrange to have your child to be picked up as soon as possible and they should follow public health advice.

Your child will be placed in a special isolation room whilst the school contacts you to arrange to pick up your child in person as soon as possible.

They will also need to get a free PCR test to check if they have COVID-19 before they are permitted back into school.

Remote Education

Not all people with COVID-19 have symptoms. Where appropriate, we will support those who need to self-isolate because they have tested positive to work or learn from home if they are well enough to do so.

Face coverings

Face coverings are no longer advised for pupils, staff, and visitors either in classrooms or in communal areas.

However, your child MUST wear a face covering if travelling by public transport.

Please note the school will NOT be providing face masks

What should the students bring into school with them and what should they wear?

Students should continue to wear their school uniform. Uniforms do not need to be cleaned any more often than usual, nor do they need to be cleaned using methods which are different from normal.

Students may bring in snacks and drinks for their own personal consumption. If students are bringing a packed lunch, this needs to be in a plastic bag with their name on it.

We will no longer be providing school equipment, so please ensure your child has all the equipment they need. We will be issuing behaviour points to students who do not have their equipment.

Clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV)

Clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) people are advised, as a minimum, to follow the same guidance as everyone else. It is important that everyone adheres to this guidance, but CEV people may wish to think particularly carefully about the additional precautions they can continue to take. Further information can be found in the guidance on protecting people who are CEV from COVID-19.

School meals

We continue to provide free school meal support to any pupils who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals and who are learning at home during term time.

Please see website for further details: https://www.thejubileeacademy.org.uk/catering

Educational Visits

The school will be resuming all educational visits from September 2021 which continue to be free for our students.

Wraparound provision and extra-curricular activity

All students are welcome to join us for a free breakfast every morning from 9am – 9.10am.

We will resume the extracurricular activities after school every day until 4pm including a tutoring programme. A full timetable will be made available in the first week of return.

Health, Hygiene & Safety Reminders

Students will be asked to wash or sanitise their hands several times a day: on entry and when leaving school; before and after break and lunch; in between transition times etc. Please make sure you practice washing hands thoroughly at home with your child. Hand sanitiser stations will be made available in all classrooms and in many communal areas around the school.

Germs can live for several hours on tissues, so any time a student wants to sneeze or cough they will need to ‘catch it’ in a tissue and ‘bin it’ to ‘kill it’ in the clearly marked campaign bins and remember to wash hands straight after.

Students should avoid touching their eyes, nose, mouth, or faces. They should try and keep their hands to themselves and avoid touching any surfaces if they do not need to. This includes stair rails, doors, walls, etc. They should follow all one-way systems around the school.

All students MUST keep their distance from others and be respectful of other people’s spaces.

Cleaning regimes

In accordance with government guidance, the school has procured an additional cleaner to support the school with transitional cleaning between lessons, break times, lunch times, toilet breaks and any other additional activities. A deeper clean will be conducted every morning, and further in-depth contamination cleaning arranged accordingly if there are any positive cases reported to the school.

Visitor Management

In accordance with our infection controls, no visitors will be allowed on site without a prior appointment with the school and this includes parents/carers and then only if the following criteria is met:

Please do not come into school if you or someone in your household is displaying any of the following coronavirus (COVID 19) symptoms:

• a new and continuous cough,
• a high temperature and /or
• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste

Or

• have tested positive in the last 10 days

If you are requested to come and pick up your child, you will be asked to wait on the 2 metre markers outside this entrance until your child is released.

Emotional wellbeing and support

We have a shared responsibility as staff, students, and parents to being understanding and accepting that everyone will have had different experiences over the past few months and will have a wide range of different feelings about returning to school. This extends to adults as well as students.

We encourage you to talk to your child about how they are feeling, encouraging them to share their feelings with their friends and adults at school.

The school will be offering several intervention programmes in partnership with external agencies in addition to the school’s pastoral support to help students with their transition back to school.

As always, we are contactable if you have any safeguarding concerns. Please email, SafegurdingGroup@thejubileeacademy.onmicrosoft.com

Further safeguarding information and guidance can be found on the school website at: https://www.thejubileeacademy.org.uk/safeguarding

Further Resources and guidance regarding the coronavirus can be found on the school website at: https://www.thejubileeacademy.org.uk/coronavirusinfo

Parents are also encouraged to visit gov.uk/backtoschool for information and practical guidance to help them plan for their children’s return to school. 

For all other concerns, please email: info@thejubileeacademy.org.uk

 

The Latest letters from school can be found here, Parental Letters

For the latest local information on Coronavirus, including support for residents, via Harrow Council website.  Click here

For a collection of safe, local offers and commissioned provision for children and young people, via Young Harrow Foundation. Click here

For guidance for parents and carers of children attending out-of-school settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, click here

For information regarding what parents and carers need to know about early years providers, schools and colleges in the autumn term, please click here

support residents who are unable to access food supplies. https://helpharrow.org/

Travel Planning

You can use our walking maps and tools to get around:

• Plan your journey to find out how to get from A to B and choose walking speeds
• Check journeys that are quicker to walk between lots of central London stations and see walking times and steps between zones 1 and 2
• See walking routes between shops and attractions that are less than 20 minutes in the West End
• Look out for Legible London signs on streets which show walking maps for short journeys