We thought a flowchart may make things a bit easier to work out whether an ‘ill child’ should come to school or not.  Most of these initial decisions will lie with our parents of course, as only they know if their child would be well enough for school, but these are uncharted times (I avoided the word ‘unprecedented’!), the ‘R-rate’ has increased over the past week, and there are new and additional rules being issued about keeping people safe.      

We hope this flowchart may be helpful and we trust that all our parents will support our school and community as best as they can.

Symptoms…
a new continuous cough*  -or-  a temperature  -or-  loss/change sense of taste/smell.

*(NHS definition: this means coughing a lot, for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual))

Here are some useful links and phone numbers…
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms/
https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19/
Phone NHS on 111 , or the Covid kit delivery helpdesk on 119

General colds and bugs … These are expected and we’ll trust our parents to decide whether your child is well enough to be in school.

We are not doctors, but if your child is under the weather, we’d ask you if they were well enough to come to school.  If a child arrives with a bit of a cold, we will be taking temperature checks in school.  Of course, we’ll also be alert to bouts of coughing, as we need to keep the children, staff and our community safe too.

The usual rules apply in terms of sickness and diarrhoea (48 hours clear.)

Please tell us if you’ve used Calpol for something, as it masks a temperature.  We will need to be supported by you regarding the best course of action.