Dear Key Worker Parents and Carers,

The country entered a National Lockdown on January 4^th 2021, which is the highest level of restrictions. Schools closed to all pupils except for vulnerable and Key worker children. They will remain closed until the Government changes its guidance.

It remains important that you and your family continue to be very careful and if anyone in your household/support bubble displays symptoms of COVID-19 (high temperature, new continuous cough and/or loss of taste or smell) that they isolate and book a test immediately. You can book a test by calling 119 or visiting www.nhs.uk/coronavirus.

If your child is in school- please do not send your child to school if they, or anyone in your household/support bubble, has any COVID-19 symptoms, and tell the school if your child tests positive for COVID-19.

Letting your school know about positive test results is also still important at the start of the February half term break as other children and staff may need to self-isolate due to being contacts.

The following guidance has been produced to help you identify when you need to contact the school over the holidays and when the school will contact you:

Positive test results

• Please tell the school about a positive test result for your child where their symptoms started on or before Saturday 13^th February, or
• Please tell the school about a positive test result for your child where the test date was on or before Saturday 13^th February and your child didn’t have any symptoms.

When telling the school about positive test results please provide the following information:

• The date symptoms started (or if there were no symptoms)
• The date the test was taken (not the date you received the result)
• The date your child’s self-isolation ends

Please contact the school as soon as possible when you receive the positive test result (see example below). Please do this by sending an email to info@blanford.dudley.sch.uk uisng the subject as 'Test Result' tell them about positive results where symptoms started on or before Saturday 13^th February.

For example:

Your child develops symptoms on Saturday 13^th February, takes a test on Sunday 14^th February and receives a positive result on Monday 15^th February. Please tell the school as soon as possible.

Contacts of positive cases

• The school will identify any pupils who are contacts of a positive case.
• The school will notify you that your child is a contact and your child must self-isolate (stay at home) for 10 days from the day they last had contact with the positive case. The school will confirm the date isolation ends with you.
• Other household members don’t need to self-isolate, unless your child goes on to develop symptoms of COVID-19.

We know that self-isolating can be difficult and may feel especially difficult for children and families during the holidays. However, this is a really important part of helping to stop the spread of COVID-19 and protecting your loved ones.

Help is available to those who are self-isolating, may be feeling lonely or isolated, are unable to leave their home, or struggling financially due to the pandemic. People can call 0300 3302 152 from Monday to Friday between 9.30am and 12.30pm.

Thank you for your continued support, playing your part and helping us protect our school and community.

Best wishes

Mrs Miller and Miss Stanton