Dear Parents and Carers

Regretfully, this Weekly News is about Covid again.  We are getting frequent updates from the DfE now that “Plan B” has been put in place and some of these will require us to take some action at school.  In summary;

• We have been asked to re-establish our testing centre so we can give all students a lateral flow test upon their return to school in January.  This has, in the past, meant delaying the start of term.  On this occasion, we are trying very hard to avoid this as they have missed more than enough school already and we may be able to do most, if not all, of the required testing on the training day already planned for 4 January.  We are checking our staffing situation and will confirm details next week (and if you are willing and able to help us out testing on that day please get in touch).
• The mask rule remains; they are to be worn in communal areas indoors – please encourage your child to spend their break times outdoors as it reduces risk of any transmission.  If you are attending the drama production this evening or the Christmas concert next Tuesday, you will be asked to wear a mask once indoors.
• Twice weekly testing is still strongly recommended to continue through the school holidays.

The most important part of all of this is the isolation rules if identified as a close contact of the Omicron variant.  It has been that all exemptions are invalid and if anybody is a close contact of this variant they must isolate regardless of age or vaccination status.  However, in his press conference, the Prime Minister said this would no longer be the case and contacts would be asked to take daily lateral flow tests.  The guidance sent by the DfE yesterday contains this paragraph….

All individuals who have been identified as a close contact of a suspected or confirmed case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, irrespective of vaccination status and age, will continue to be required to self-isolate and asked to book a PCR test.

The Government plans to introduce Daily Contact Testing as soon as possible as an alternative to self-isolation for contacts of positive Omicron cases who are fully vaccinated or under the age of 18 years and 6 months.

This is vital as we are seeing schools sending healthy children home due to contacts which is something we absolutely must avoid at all costs so we have gone back to the DfE to clarify what this means.

At Myton we have around 30 students currently with Covid which is slightly less than 2% and this figure has only wavered slightly up or down from this total all year.  We have seen staff getting the disease though and I ask you, and particularly your children, to be patient with cover classes and supply.  It is very difficult finding supply teachers at the moment and our own staff are stretched very thinly to make sure classes are staffed.  We fully intend to continue with school-based events; the drama show this evening and the Christmas concert next week.  We did take the decision to cancel our carol service at St Mary’s though.  We normally take Year 7s to the church on the last day of term but we considered 280 children, pretty much all unvaccinated due to their age, singing carols and spraying their Christmas cheer all over each other, staff and the elderly parishioners who normally attend to be unwise.  And whilst my invitation to these things often gets lost these days, I don’t believe there is a full staff Christmas party, or business meeting, which I need to fail to notice.  I’m not sure I could possibly miss the quantities of cheese and wine (or Ginsters and cider) required to keep this lot going for an evening.!

Best wishes

Andy Perry – Head Teacher

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