18 July 2021
Dear Parents and Carers
We have just received advice from the Government about the changes to rules from Monday. Please read the letter below from Nottinghamshire County Council that details the changes from Monday 19th July and your responsibilities as a parent and adult.

To summarise:-
Classes 3DW and 5PW must continue to self-isolate as instructed previously. Please DO NOT bring any children from these classes onto either playground to pick up siblings. If you are struggling, please ring the office and we can help with this.

Anyone who is currently self-isolating due to testing positive with a lateral flow device or a PCR test must continue to do so until their self-isolation end date.

 Anyone who is currently sell-isolating due to being in close contact with someone who has tested positive on a lateral flow device or a PCR test must continue to self-isolate until their self-isolation end date.

You must still inform school if your child has a positive PCR or lateral flow test but NHS Test and Trace will undertake the contact tracing and not school.

Bubbles/classes will not be closed if there is a positive case in school from Monday 19th July.

School will not inform you if there has been a positive case in your child’s case. NHS Test and Trace will be in contact with you if your child’s name is given as a close contact.

Please be aware that the large numbers of people having to self-isolate is having an impact on staffing. If we cannot maintain safe staffing levels we would have to close some or all of the classes. Obviously this would be a ‘last resort’ and is not a decision we would take lightly but we have to ensure all of the children are safe in school – that is our number one priority.

All our risk assessments in school will remain the same and we will continue to work under the ‘bubble system’. Due to the number of staff and pupils currently isolating or off school it is unlikely that we will be able to facilitate any more face to face transition events. The teachers will therefore hold a ‘New Class Zoom’ next week – look out for the link which will be sent by email. These will be held after school.

It has been an incredibly challenging final few weeks to this term and we continue to appreciate your support and understanding. As we move to this stage of the roadmap can I please ask you to act safely and responsibly, particularly around school, to keep our community safe.

Kind regards
Mrs Revill

Letter to parents, carers or guardians from Nottinghamshire County Council
As you know, the Prime Minister announced on 12 July that Step 4 of the roadmap would go ahead on 19 July.
One of the key changes that will take place from 19 July is that education and childcare settings will no longer be asked to conduct routine contact tracing. As with positive cases in any other setting, NHS Test and Trace will work with either the positive case – or in the case of children – the parents, carers or guardian of the positive case to identify close contacts.

NHS Test and Trace already manages the contact tracing process for the rest of society – including children who have recorded a positive PCR test – and has expertise in supporting people to identify close contacts.

This letter sets out in more detail below how that process will work and what you need to do if your child tests positive for COVID-19.

Self-isolating and taking a test
1. If your child has symptoms, they and other members of the household should self-isolate – and you should inform their education or childcare setting. You should immediately order a PCR test for them. If the PCR result is negative, they and other members of their household can stop self-isolating (unless instructed to self-isolate for other reasons). If the PCR result is positive, they, other members of their household and any close contacts identified by NHS Track and Trace must self-isolate until 10 days after the onset of symptoms.

2. If your child has a positive result from a lateral flow device (LFD) test, they and other members of the household should self-isolate – and you should inform their education or childcare setting. You should immediately order a confirmatory PCR test. If the confirmatory test is taken within two days and the result is negative, they and other members of their household can stop self-isolating (unless instructed to self-isolate for other reasons). If the confirmatory PCR test is positive (or is taken more than two days after the LFD), other members of their household and any close contacts identified by NHS Track and Trace must self-isolate until 10 days after the LFD test.

3. PCR tests can be booked online through the NHS Test & Trace website or by calling 119.

4. PCR test results will be recorded with NHS Test and Trace automatically, but you should also communicate the result to the education or childcare setting during term time or summer provision.

Contact tracing
5. If your child gets a positive PCR test result, NHS Test and Trace will contact you, using the details you registered when ordering the PCR test. You and/or your child will be asked a series of specific questions designed to identify who your child has been in close contact with. Being in an education or childcare setting with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 will not necessarily mean a person is identified as a close contact.

6. You will be asked to provide the contact details, if you know them, of any of the individuals – or their parents or guardians – who have been identified as close contacts. NHS Test and Trace will then get in touch with these close contacts and provide appropriate instructions or advice (see below).

Self-isolation and/or testing of close contacts
7. At present, anyone identified as a close contact is legally required to self-isolate and must not attend their education or childcare setting (the only exception is if they are participating in a daily contact testing trial). Anyone identified as a non-household close contact by NHS Track and Trace must self-isolate until 10 days after the date of their most recent contact with that person. If they live in the same household, they must self-isolate until 10 days after the date of that person developing symptoms (see point 1 above) or, if that person was asymptomatic, the date of their test (see point 2 above). NHS Test and Trace will notify you of the day on which the self-isolation period ends.

8. Close contacts are also advised to take a PCR test. If the test result is negative, they must still complete the full self-isolation period, as the test will not detect all positive cases. If the result is positive, they will need to self-isolate for a further 10 days – and NHS Test and Trace will contact them to identify any close contacts.

9. From 16 August, if the close contact is under 18, they will not have to self-isolate (in line with the policy for fully vaccinated adults) but will be asked to take an PCR test immediately, other than for very young children identified as non-household contacts, and they will not need to self-isolate while awaiting the results of the test. If the PCR test is positive, they will be required to self-isolate for 10 days from the date of the test. NHS Test and Trace will then get in touch to identify close contacts (see points 5 and 6 above). Further guidance on these changes to self-isolation will be provided shortly.

We recognise how difficult the past 18 months have been and the sacrifices that all families, education and childcare settings have had to make. This has been an enormously challenging time for everyone and we would like to take the opportunity to thank you for everything you have done.
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