Worple Primary School
COVID- Christmas Update- December 2020
Dear parents,
I would like to begin this letter by thanking you for your support over the last term.It has been a challenge for everyone, but your support has been hugely appreciated.
As a school community we have done particularly well at keeping the virus at bay, and consequently we have experienced very little disruption to our school in terms of closure or children being sent home from school. We want to do our very best to retain this, as many schools around us have been a lot less fortunate.
I write to you in this letter to urge you to continue to follow all of the government guidance regarding safety over the Christmas period, particularly as London moves into tier 3.
We know that families will want to get together and celebrate and the government has made some adjustments to the restrictions to allow for this to happen ‘within parameters’. We are yet to understand whether this will have an impact on the number of cases in January, but it is expected that we will see some rise in infection rates because of this.
With this in mind, it is critical that in January if your child is unwell and displays any of the coronavirus symptoms; persistent cough, high temperature or loss of taste and smell, that they remain at home and are tested. Your child must not return to school on the 4th of January if he/she experiences any of these symptoms. Please do contact us in the normal way if this is the case.
If your child falls ill over the Christmas holidays and does test positive for coronavirus, it is important that we are informed of this at the time, preferably on the same day. Please do not wait to let us know in January as we may have to track some of his/her close contacts from the period that they were in school. If this is the case, please contact us at: absence@worple.hounslow.sch.uk emailing us with your contact details and when your child tested positive Please do not leave a telephone message on the school answer phone, as they will not be received. Once receiving your email we will make contact with you.
It is critical that these procedures are followed so that we can keep the rate of infection in the community low and ensure that everyone, children and their families are all safe during this period.
If you require information about testing and advice on your child's symptoms during the Christmas period, please contact 111 who will be able to answer your questions.
The new term begins on Monday 4th of January. It will be critical that as adults, on our return, we are extremely vigilant about wearing masks at school drop off and collection and that wherever possible families do keep their distance from one another in the school playground. The greatest transmission comes from adult to adult and given that many more families will have been mixing over the holidays, this will be incredibly important.
All of the school procedures from this term will continue, including the arrangements for drop off and pick up at the end of the school day. I am aware that those of you who do come with buggies onto the school site are finding it difficult to navigate your way through Queens terrace, as the pavement is very narrow. Unfortunately having reviewed some possible alternatives, this still is the safest way to prevent overcrowding on the school site. We will of course continue to review this procedure over the coming months.
School clubs will not resume in January until we know more about the impact of the Christmas period on cases, and what tier restrictions we are in next half term.
During the holiday period, all notices will continue to be put up on our school website and in the event that school did not reopen, we would of course contact you directly.
Our Christmas concert which was kindly filmed for us by a parent, will be available to watch over the Christmas period and you will receive a letter explaining how you can access this. There will be no newsletter this week and I have no doubt that the children will have a fantastic week of class celebrations. Some children will be sadly quarantining during the week and will miss the events, but we will ensure that they have a chance for a celebration when we return in January.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any further information on this matter.
Thank you as always for your support.
Wishing you all a safe, peaceful and joyful Christmas break
With best wishes,
Marais Leenders
Executive Headteacher
