Covid 19 Blog

So…. our numbers are not high, but still ticking along and many staff getting covid for the second time seem to be affected by fatigue much more second time around. When this happens, we need to support staff to return to work in a phased way (i.e. working half days for the first week and building up from here).

We still need to ration places at Northern Counties, but this has reduced from nearly 70 days of student home learning per week, to 44 in the coming week. We aim to continue to reduce this on a week by week basis, as long as it is safe to do so. I am meeting with our commissioners from around the region regularly and we do our very best to respond to changing home circumstances. If your child has a regular day off and you need to make a change to this, please do get in touch as we have been able to make changes in response to most requests from parents and carers.

As recorded in the risk assessment shared with you on this blog, we have reopened the school dining room and staff rooms and it has been lovely to see some of our children socialising and eating together again. We are slowly building up the numbers of students who are transitioning over to the dining room for their lunch.

Our next step will be to take off face masks and coverings in some parts of school. We will only be able to do this in consultation with our local public health department as we have pupils in school who are still considered to be clinically extremely vulnerable.

Please remember that we cannot accept poorly students or staff into school. If a student becomes poorly in the day, someone from the staff team will contact you to collect your child. Anyone who displays covid-19 symptoms should get a PCR test and are strongly advised to self-isolate for up to 10 days (coming out of isolation if they get two consecutive LFD tests, 24 hours apart, from day 5 of their self-isolation). In order to protect the students and staff, please do not come to school or transport your child to school if you have tested positive for covid-19.

Staff at school are still advised to test twice weekly using LFD tests and we have a supply of tests for students if they have been identified as a close contact of a positive case. LFD test are still for asymptomatic testing only: anyone with covid-19 symptoms should get a PCR test and are advised to self-isolate until they get their results.

If you have any covid queries or if you are reporting positive tests, please contact the covid mailbox: covid.ncs@percyhedley.org.uk

Many thanks – Jo

Just a quick update before we break up for the holidays.

We have had a further 4 positive cases this week but things do seem to be slowing down.

Covid restrictions in England are all due to be lifted at midnight on Wednesday 23rd February. We don’t yet know what the Department for Education will advise for Special Schools, or how our local Public Health Department will interpret this. In the meantime, please see the updated school covid risk assessment below.

After half term we will be returning some of the school pre-covid routines routines back to normal. This means that we will restore the staff rooms and start reintroducing pupils back to the dining hall for their lunch.

We have five more positive cases this week (four staff and one pupil). Staff absences remain high however so our rationing of student places has had to continue.

We are meeting with our commissioners regularly. so they are fully up to date with the school staffing problems. one class is particularly difficult to staff due to the needs of the pupils to have familiar trained staff with them at all times.

Please continue to report all positive LFDs and PCRs to covid19.ncs@percyhedley.org.uk, this is because Public Health need this information from us regularly.

Stay safe and have a good weekend – jo

Clearly I spoke too soon last week…..this we we have had a further 9 staff and 2 pupils test positive since the last update.

This continues to impact on our overall staffing levels so we have arranged for home learning to continue next week. Please keep an eye out for emails.

As ever, we are hugely grateful for family / carer’s support through this difficult time.

Please continue to report positive tests to covid19.ncs@percyhedley.org.uk and do get in touch if we can support you further in any way at all.

Stay safe – Jo

The Omicron wave seems to be passing. This week we have had a further 2 pupil and 2 staff positive cases.

Staffing remains a challenge but we have been able to reduce pupil home learning days for the next 2 weeks and hope to be able to reduce this further after this. We are liaising with our commissioners regularly and do understand the pressure than home learning has on families.

Following on from changes to national covid restrictions, we are hoping to reduce some of our in school restrictions soon, but will only do this when it feels safe to do so.

Our current school covid risk assessment is below.

The Omicron wave is still having a significant impact on school with 5 new student cases and 4 new staff cases.

This continues to have an impact on staffing and one class is closed while staffing is particularly low in there.

We are in close contact with Public Health in Newcastle and they continue to ask us to be super-cautious and to ‘think covid first’ if anyone is ill at all.

This means that we will ask our pupils to stay at home if they are poorly at all and to get a PCR test is they are displaying covid symptoms. Staff with symptoms cannot attend school until they have a negative PCR result.

Covid mail box: covid19.ncs@percyhedley.org.uk

It has been a challenging week in school as we have 19 positive staff cases following the Christmas holidays.

We have continued with our covid security measures: bubbles, staff mask wearing (and students where appropriate), LFD testing, increased cleaning and contact point cleaning, maintained 2m social distancing whenever possible, handwashing and use of hand gels.

As ever, please report all PCR results and positive LFD results to: covid19.ncs@percyhedley.org.uk

We have had to increase pupil home learning days in order to ensure we maintain safe staffing levels. Please keep an eye out for emails ad do let us know if you need to swap your child’s allocated day/s.

Just one new positive case this week. We have an infection Prevention and Control Nurse from Public Health in Newcastle visiting us this afternoon to support us in our efforts to reduce in school transmission if Covid-19.

Lots of pupils and staff continue to be identified as close contacts. If you or you child are identified as a close contact, we strongly advise you / them to get a PCR test and to do 10 days of LFD home testing. Everyone is encouraged to continue twice weekly LFD home testing.

As usual, please report all positives and PCR negatives to covid19.ncs@percyhedley.org.uk this mailbox is monitored every day so that we can inform staff and families as soon as we are aware that anyone is identified as a close contact.