18th March 2020
Good evening,
As I am sure you will have seen on the news this evening, schools will be closing at the end of the school day on Friday, with no indication of when we will reopen. The Prime Minister has announced that the children of key workers will still need to be educated, and also that children in receipt of free school meals will need to be fed, but at this time we have no further details. I wish that we did, but please bear with us whilst the Government decides what we must do.
Many thanks for your understanding in these uncertain times.
17th March 2020
Yesterday, the Government introduced new guidance on whole household isolation in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak:
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The symptoms are:
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The full stay at home guidance for households with these symptoms can be found here:
The Prime Minister’s statement from Monday 16 March can be found here:
The most important thing individuals can do to protect themselves is to wash their hands more often, for at least 20 seconds, with soap and water. Public Health England recommends that in addition to handwashing before eating, and after coughing and sneezing, everyone should also wash hands after using toilets and travelling on public transport.
Watch this short NHS film for guidance:
The Department for Education coronavirus helpline is available to answer questions about COVID-19 relating to education and children’s social care. Staff, parents and young people can contact this helpline as follows:
Phone: 0800 046 8687
Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday), 10am to 4pm (Saturday to Sunday)
Please note, we are currently experiencing high volumes of calls. We appreciate your patience at this time and apologise for any wait that you may experience. To ensure that we answer your calls as quickly as possible, we have now extended our opening hours to cover weekends and are increasing the number of call handlers available to answer your calls.
If you work in a school, please have your unique reference number (URN or UK PRN) available when calling the hotline.
Updates on COVID-19:
Guidance for educational settings:
Guidance for social or community care and residential settings:
Travel advice for those travelling and living overseas:
Educational resources:
Latest Department for Education information:
16th March 2020
We received our daily update from the Department for Education at 1.42pm, but at 5.20ish, when the Prime Minister delivered his daily briefing this is what was said:
'Anyone who lives with someone who has a cough or a temperature should stay at home for 14 days'
The DfE daily email is below:
Today, the Department for Education and Public Health England have issued updated guidance for education settings on COVID-19. This guidance will assist staff in addressing COVID-19 in educational settings. This includes childcare, schools, further and higher educational institutions.
What you need to know:
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The updated guidance can be found here:
15th March 2020
Letter sent to parents:
15th March 2020
Dear Parents and Carers,
RE: CORONAVIRUS – ADDITIONAL SCHOOL ACTIONS
As announced by the Prime Minister, schools are NOT closing at the moment. However, some very clear advice has been issued:
If your child shows symptoms of Coronavirus, (a high temperature, 37.8 or above, and/or a new, continuous cough) he/she is to stay at home for SEVEN days.
At St Mary’s we are following a staged and sensible risk assessment. The following measures are already in place:
These measures will be in place from tomorrow, Monday 16th March:
Delay measures:
We are taking these measures to delay the spread of the virus and hope that parents support and understand why we have to do this, given the circumstances. We are receiving no specific guidance from Public Health England or from the Government, and so we are trying to make the right decisions based on the knowledge that we have, which is the same as all of you have.
As we are given more information or more guidance, we will make judgements based on that and will of course keep you informed. We do none of this lightly.
Thank you for your continued support.
Kind regards,
Morwenna Dunstan
13th March 2020
Yesterday, the Government announced that we are moving from the Contain phase of the coronavirus action plan and into the Delay phase, in response to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Full details of each stage in the government action plan can be found here:
To support the delay of the spread of the virus, the Department for Health and Social Care has asked anyone who shows certain symptoms to stay at home for 7 days, regardless of whether they have travelled to affected areas. This means people should stay at home and avoid all but essential contact with others for 7 days from the point of displaying mild symptoms, to slow the spread of infection.
The symptoms are:
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You do not need to call NHS 111 to stay at home. If your symptoms worsen during your stay at home period or are no better after 7 days contact NHS 111 online at 111.nhs.uk. If you have no internet access, you should call NHS 111. For a medical emergency dial 999.
Current advice remains in place: no education or children’s social care setting should close in response to a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 case unless advised to do so by Public Health England.
The Chief Medical Officer has advised that the impact of closing schools on both children’s education and on the workforce will be substantial, but the benefit to public health may not be. Decisions on future advice to schools will be taken based on the latest and best scientific evidence, which at this stage suggests children are a lower risk group.
The Government has issued new travel guidance for the education sector. This advises against all overseas education trips for children under 18. This does not apply to domestic trips, or overseas trips which are already underway.
The full guidance can be found here:
The most important thing individuals can do to protect themselves is to wash their hands more often, for at least 20 seconds, with soap and water. Public Health England recommends that in addition to handwashing before eating, and after coughing and sneezing, everyone should also wash hands after using toilets and travelling on public transport.
Watch this short NHS film for guidance:
The e-Bug project is led by Public Health England and has a dedicated webpage for learning resources on hand washing and respiratory hygiene.
Resources are currently available for KS1, KS2 and KS3 and can be used in various settings including schools:
The Department for Education coronavirus helpline is available to answer questions about COVID-19 relating to education and children’s social care. Staff, parents and young people can contact this helpline as follows:
Phone: 0800 046 8687
Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday), 10am to 4pm (Saturday to Sunday)
Please note, we are currently experiencing high volumes of calls and apologise for any wait that you may experience. To ensure that we answer your calls as quickly as possible we have now extended our opening hours to cover weekends.
If you work in a school, please have your unique reference number (URN or UK PRN) available when calling the hotline.
Updates on COVID-19:
Guidance for educational settings:
Guidance for social or community care and residential settings:
Travel advice for those travelling and living overseas:
Educational resources:
Latest Department for Education information: