COVID-19

This page has been created to provide one central point for all relevant COVID-19 related information for parents. 

The Government has now set out its plans for the next phase of the pandemic, called 'Living with Covid-19', which took effect on 24th February 2022. 

The main implications for our school and families are:

• The guidance for staff in most mainstream education and childcare settings to undertake twice-weekly asymptomatic testing has been removed.  Pupils with symptoms of Covid-19 are no longer advised to get a test.

• While there is no longer a legal requirement to self-isolate if you have Covid-19, advice is to try and stay at home and avoid contact with other people to avoid passing on the virus. 

• If a child or young person aged 18 or under does test positive for Covid-19, they should try and stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 3 days. This starts from the day after they did the test. Children and young people tend to be infectious to others for less time than adults. If they are well and do not have a temperature after 3 days, there is a much lower risk that they will pass on Covid-19 to others. 

• The Government  has removed the requirement for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to self-isolate. 

• The Government has also ended routine contact tracing. 

We will continue to closely monitor the number of children within our school who contract Covid-19, and may return to our previous procedures in the event of an outbreak. 

We continue to support the personal choice of members of staff wearing face coverings within school and we are maintaining high levels of hygiene, ventilation, hand washing and cleaning regimes.

Please do help us minimise the risk of infection within school by ensuring that, if your child is unwell or displaying possible Covid-19 symptoms, they stay at home and you inform the school of their absence using the smwgcovid@woolmergreen.herts.sch.uk mail address or the school absence telephone line (01438 813267, option 1).

The list of symptoms of Covid-19, flu and common respiratory infections currently given in the new national guidance include:

• continuous cough
• high temperature, fever or chills
• loss of, or change in, your normal sense of taste or smell
• shortness of breath
• unexplained tiredness, lack of energy
• muscle aches or pains that are not due to exercise
• not wanting to eat or not feeling hungry
• headache that is unusual or longer lasting than usual
• sore throat, stuffy or runny nose
• diarrhoea, feeling sick or being sick.

However, guidance also states that children and young people with mild symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat, or slight cough, who are otherwise well, can continue to attend their education setting. 

Children and young people who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay at home and avoid contact with other people, where they can. They can go back to school, college or childcare, and resume normal activities when they no longer have a high temperature and they are well enough to attend. 

If you have any queries regarding the changes to the Government guidance, please look at the NHS website, or call 119 for advice. 

If your child is self isolating

If your family are having to isolate for a period of time, think about printing off the diary resource in the link below, which is designed specifically for children in this situation. 

Work will be set by your child's class teacher and emailed via the class email. Further work can be found on the Class Pages of the website, and other resources can be found here.